Patients at the Center for Thyroid and Parathyroid Diseases have access to the most advanced diagnostics and therapies available for conditions affecting the thyroid and parathyroid glands. This includes fine needle aspiraton (FNA) if a lump is discovered and genetic testing of thyroid nodules. We also utilize molecular (genetic) testing on moderate and high-risk thyroid nodules to help characterize the nodules and formulate a treatment plan. With a focus on the least invasive treatments, our highly skilled team of physicians collaborates with each other and with you to personalize the best possible care plan.

Our Center provides medical and surgical treatments that include the following:

• Observation/”watchful waiting”: For some conditions that don’t require immediate treatment, such as a small goiter, your physician may choose to closely monitor you for any changes. 

• Medications: Certain disorders, including Graves disease and goiters, may benefit from medications. For patients whose thyroid has been surgically removed, lifelong thyroid hormone replacement is required.

• Radioactive iodine treatment: Radioactive iodine is an oral medication to destroy thyroid cells and stop the production of excess thyroid hormones. Its administration is overseen by an endocrinologist and a nuclear medicine doctor, and it is used for a number of conditions, including Graves disease, goiters, and as an adjunct to surgery for more advanced thyroid cancer.

• Surgery: Your physician may recommend an operation as the most effective treatment for a rangeof conditions including Graves disease, goiters, hyperparathyroidism, and parathyroid hyperplasia, as well as thyroid cancer and parathyroid cancer. Surgical management may be total thyroidectomy, which is the removal of the entire thyroid, or lobectomy/hemithyroidectomy, which is the removal of only half of the thyroid gland, so the patient can retain thyroid function.  When indicated, the lymph nodes below the thyroid gland (central compartment), or in the sides of the neck (lateral compartments), may also be surgically addressed.