Needle tract seeding of papillary thyroid carcinoma after fine needle aspiration: A case report

Abstract Background Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is an important and economical technique for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Needle tract seeding (NTS) is a rare complication of FNA. The location and number of NTS that occurred in our patient differed from other case reports. Thus, we report a case of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with needle implantation.Case report: We report a 34-year-old man with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) who developed tumor dissemination around the sternocleidomastoid muscle 5 years after FNA and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The diagnosis of NTS is based on imaging (computed tomography and ultrasound), postoperative pathology. Metastatic deposits appeared in the muscle which implied that seeding most probably resulted from FNA.Conclusion FNA is a safe procedure and NTS is rare and can be surgically removed. Therefore, the benefits of FNA far outweigh the risks associated with complications.