Thyroid Compressive Symptoms: Optimizing Diagnosis and Management for Improved Outcomes

Highlight

• Thyroid compressive symptoms such as dysphagia, dyspnea, orthopnea, and neck pressure often lead patients to seek medical evaluation, but alternate etiologies like GERD and laryngeal muscle tension should be carefully considered.
• Patients with larger thyroid nodules and symptoms including dyspnea and orthopnea are more likely to benefit from thyroid surgery, with high rates of postoperative symptom resolution up to 91% in orthopnea cases.
• A comprehensive preoperative assessment, including symptom characterization and imaging, is critical to differentiate compressive symptoms truly caused by thyroid pathology from other causes, thereby optimizing treatment outcomes.