Alcohol Sclerotherapy for Thyroid Cysts
Surgery is the standard therapy for a benign recurrent thyroid cyst. There are now alternative therapies for recurrent symptomatic thyroid cysts. Percutaneous Ethanol Injection (PEI), was first shown by the Italians in 1994 to be an effective alternative to surgery. This is an office procedure with no down time, compared to 3 to 4 day stay in hospital for surgery.
A review of the effectiveness of this treatment is available by following this link.
The video on the right shows the use of alcohol (ethanol) in treating cysts (collections of fluid) in the thyroid gland.
Download Clip to Watch Alcohol Sclerotherapy
Video Notes:
The video shows a trapezoid shaped cyst in the right upper corner of the video. It is darker than the surrounding normal thyroid tissue.
A needle is introduced into the cyst cavity and may be identified by the bright white spot in the middle of the cyst.
As the cyst contents are sucked out, the cyst cavity reduces in size.
There is a pause while the doctor attaches a syringe filled with alcohol to be injected into the cyst.
Alcohol flowing into the cyst appears as a dense white mass. This serves to destroy the cells that produce the cyst fluid .