The diagnosis of a thyroid mass is made by taking a medical history and examining the neck. Your doctor may have you lift up your chin, extending your neck to make the thyroid gland more prominent. This helps to distinguish a thyroid mass from other lumps and bumps in the neck. This is a safe, relatively painless procedure. A fine needle is passed into the lump in the thyroid, and samples of the tissues are taken.
Most patients require several passes with the needle.
There is little pain afterwards and very few complications from the procedure. If you have a tendency to bleed excessively, this procedure may not be appropriate. The results are read by a doctor called a cytopathologist. This report will help your doctor decide upon the proper treatment for this thyroid mass. The usual time period for some improvement is 3 to 6 months.