Almost all the patients were euthyroid prior to surgery.
Ultrasonography was performed in 56% of inpatients
and 62% of ambulatory patients. The average largest
dimension of thyroid nodules based on preoperative
ultrasonography was 29.6 mm and 32.6 mm for inpatients
and ambulatory patients, respectively, with no statistical
difference. There was one patient in each group with subclinical
hypothyroidism, and one patient in the inpatient
group who was on treatment for hyperthyroidism. The
fi nal histological diagnoses for the thyroid masses are
shown in Table III. The operative characteristics of our
patients are shown in Table IV. Five patients who had
been scheduled for ambulatory operations were admitted
as inpatients postoperatively. One of these patients was
admitted for observation as she had early postoperative