Expectantly waiting: a survey of thyroid surgery wait times among Canadian Otolaryngologists

Table 1 Results of statistical analysis of actual and appropriate wait times for various thyroid pathologies in Canada

Clinical scenario	Median wait times
	Actual	Appropriate	Mean paired differences^†	p-value^††
Time to see new consults with:
Undiagnosed nodule >1 cm	4-8 weeks	4-8 weeks	0.57	0.0351
Positive/suspicious FNA	2-4 weeks	2-4 weeks	0.25	0.0351
Time to OR if FNA shows:
Papillary Carcinoma	6-8 weeks	4-6 weeks	0.61	0.0002
Follicular neoplasm	8-12 weeks	8-12 weeks	0.57	0.0002
AUS*	8-12 weeks	6-8 weeks	0.51	0.0013
Indeterminate/Non-diagnostic	3-6 months	2-3 months	0.52	0.0002
Medullary carcinoma	2-4 weeks	2-4 weeks	0.34	0.0198
Benign symptomatic disease	3-6 months	3-6 months	0.61	0.0001
Time to completion thyroidectomy if initial hemi shows:
Papillary or Follicular Ca	6-8 weeks	4-6 weeks	0.52	0.0041
Medullary Ca	4-6 weeks	2-4 weeks	0.29	0.0027

^†As determined by Wilcoxon signed-rank test;^††α=0.005, significant results in bold; *Atypical cells of undetermined significance.

ISSN: 1916-0216