Does sedation offer better outcomes than local anaesthesia for thyroid FNA in adult patients?

Objective To examine the potential benefits of sedation in adults undergoing fine needle aspiration (FNA) of thyroid nodules. Methods This retrospective study compared the outcomes of sedated and non‐sedated FNA patients. Results A total of 860 patients underwent 1698 FNAs of thyroid nodules. The mean patient age was 52.4±14.4 years, and 80.2% of patients were women. The non‐sedated group consisted of 782 patients with 1543 (93.5%) FNA procedures. The sedated group consisted of 66 patients who underwent 107 (6.5%) FNAs. There was no statistical difference between these groups with respect to age, gender, nodule size, nodule vascularity, non‐diagnostic sample rate and post FNA hematoma (P > .05). Conclusions Performing FNA of thyroid nodules in adult patients under sedation is not associated with a higher diagnostic yield or lower bleeding rate when compared to local anesthesia. Sedation should be judiciously used on only very anxious patients due to the increased overall cost. In this study, we compared outcomes of thyroid nodule FNA with sedation vs local anesthesia. Sedation offers neither better diagnostic yield nor lower post‐FNA bleeding rate compared to local anesthesia.