The authors analyze a group of 916 patients who had thyroid operations in the course of five years at a Surgical Department in Bratislava. 256 patients suffered from malignant disease. The authors analyze the incidence of different histological types of carcinoma, types of surgical operations, complications and patient survival. They discuss the problem of thyroid microcarcinoma, the relationship of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and carcinoma. The authors emphasize the importance of exact implementation of the first operation of the thyroid gland, in their opinion leaving residues of the gland during Berry ligature is inadequate. Re-operations should be implemented by departments with a high professional standard of surgeons and standardized pre- and postoperative patient care, in collaboration with an endocrinologist, pathologist and a department of nuclear medicine.

        Key words: thyroid carcinoma - microcarcinoma - re-operation - complications - survival of patients