In our clinical work, we often encounter many patients with thyroid nodules, the vast majority of them do not know much about the disease they suffer from, and often seek medical advice in a hurry, which not only increases the cost of treatment, but also delays their own condition. The most common questions raised by patients in our clinical work are answered as follows: 1. I usually eat iodized salt, how can I still have thyroid nodules? It is true that most of the thyroid nodules are caused by iodine deficiency, but a long-term high iodine diet will also stimulate the thyroid tissue to proliferate and develop nodules by increasing the level of thyroid stimulating hormone in the body. Because we usually salt has added iodine, so then long-term consumption of seafood with high iodine content, such as kelp, is also prone to cause thyroid nodules. 2.Is it better to operate or not to operate if you have thyroid nodules? This depends on the size of the nodule, the result of ultrasound and the result of thyroid puncture. Generally speaking, surgery is recommended for thyroid nodules with a diameter of more than 2cm. Nodules between 1 and 2 cm in diameter can be treated with thyroxine preparations for about half a year. If the nodule shrinks or does not continue to increase in size, surgery can be withheld for the time being, and the patient can be closely followed up. Nodules less than 1cm in diameter are generally not treated, but for nodules with gravel-like calcification found by ultrasound or papillary hyperplasia found by puncture or hardness suspected to be cancerous, they must be operated regardless of their size. 3.Why is it easy for benign thyroid nodules to recur after surgery? Some people have to undergo two or three operations? Nowadays, the most common benign thyroid nodule is nodular goiter. Pathological examination of this kind of disease reveals that from the beginning of the lesion, the whole gland is pathologically altered, and due to the gradual expansion of the follicle, there is epithelial papillary proliferation and blood vessel regeneration which triggers the nodule. In the case of longer duration of the disease, nodules are present in almost the entire thyroid gland. Therefore, if the scope of surgical resection is not thorough enough, there is a high possibility of residual hyperplasia of thyroid tissue and tiny nodules, and postoperative suppressive therapy with thyroxine preparation has limited effect on the residual diseased tissues, so the rate of postoperative recurrence is high. And once recurrence requires reoperation, the risk of surgery is 5 to 10 times higher than the initial surgery. Nowadays, foreign countries adopt a more positive attitude towards bilateral nodular goiter, with total resection on the side of the main lesion and total or near-total resection on the opposite side; moreover, normal thyroid function can be maintained as long as a small dose of thyroxine preparation is given after the operation. The advantages of this type of surgery are mainly reflected in two aspects: firstly, it completely avoids postoperative recurrence, and secondly, it avoids the risk and pain of reoperation for patients who have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer only after surgery. However, total thyroidectomy is a very demanding operation, in which the bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerves and parathyroid glands have to be completely dissected to avoid damage and serious complications. In recent years, in our hospital, we have also performed near-total thyroidectomy for bilateral diffuse nodular goiter with patient’s consent. The result is very satisfactory, and there is no case of serious complication or recurrence so far. 4.Why do I speak normally but feel weak after thyroid nodule surgery? This is mainly because in order to avoid damaging the recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid nodule surgery, it is often dissected, which may cause edema of the recurrent laryngeal nerve or affect its blood supply, so that the phenomenon of speech is more strenuous. However, this phenomenon will gradually disappear in about 3 months after surgery as the edema subsides and the blood supply recovers. 5.Why will my hands and feet become numb for a period of time after thyroid nodule surgery? This is mainly due to the fact that some blood vessels have to be cut off during the surgery for thyroid nodule, resulting in the blood supply to the parathyroid glands being affected or the blood return to the parathyroid glands being blocked and bruised. Numbness of hands and feet can often be relieved by appropriate calcium supplements such as Calcium D tablets, and this phenomenon will gradually disappear about 2 months after the operation with the restoration of blood supply or the subsiding of bruises. 6.Why is the incision swollen and hard after thyroid nodule surgery? This is actually due to the normal edema reaction of the incision after surgery. Because the thyroid nodule surgery to a wide range of separation of the skin flap above and below the incision, which is very easy to cause edema of the tissue around the incision. Especially those middle-aged and elderly women, because the skin is more loose and more fat tissue, so the incision is very easy to edema. Patients do not need to panic, generally 2 months after surgery with the absorption of edema incision will gradually return to flat. 7.Can thyroid surgery leave no scar or as small a scar as possible? With the improvement of people’s living standard, the demand for this aspect is getting higher and higher. It can be said that it is impossible to perform surgery without leaving scars, but we can improve the surgical technique to make the scars smaller and smaller or more and more hidden. At present, there are several ways to do this: first, small incision surgery, now we can do a 4 cm or even slightly less than 4 cm incision in the neck to complete the conventional surgery, can be removed 5 cm size of the specimen; the second is to operate with the help of endoscopy; the third is to implement the concept of cosmetic surgery in the operation. Of course, in addition to the surgical incision scars related to the operation, there is another important factor is that a small number of patients for keloid. In general, after 2-3 years after surgery, the surgical scar will become less and less obvious, and patients with good skin can even be basically invisible. 8.How to avoid excessive growth of keloid scar after surgery? Our practice is: (1) Make the surgical incision as small as possible. (2) Adopt intradermal suture technique to minimize skin irritation. (3) Small doses of radiotherapy or isotope patches are given after surgery to inhibit the growth of the scar. (4) Recently, we have taken laser cosmetic treatment in our dermatology department after surgery to remove the stitches, and the result is good.