Thyroid & parathyroid
Congenital / metabolic anomalies
Lateral aberrant thyroid
Author: Andrey Bychkov, M.D., Ph.D.
Last author update: 1 January 2016
Last staff update: 15 September 2020
Copyright: 2002-2025, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Lateral aberrant thyroid [title]
Table of Contents
Definition / generalCite this page: Bychkov A. Lateral aberrant thyroid. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/thyroidlateral.html. Accessed January 9th, 2025.
Definition / general
- Outdated, imprecise term (Surgery 1993;114:1103); should not be used by pathologists
- Term "lateral aberrant thyroid" has been known since 1779 (Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2016;273:2867); today it is rarely found in surgical textbooks
- Aberrant thyroid is a mass of tissue having the structure of a normal or pathological thyroid gland, but situated at some definite distance from the normal thyroid, with which it has no connection (Schrager, 1906, cited from Ann Surg 1942;115:161) - or, more strictly, lateral to the jugular vein (Wenig: Atlas of Head and Neck Pathology, 3rd Edition, 2015)
- Collective ("umbrella") term, largely represented by metastatic carcinoma or benign parasitic nodule
- Conditions formerly called "lateral aberrant thyroid" are indicated below:
- Malignant
- Nodal metastasis of thyroid carcinoma accounts for most of these cases; see also Thyroid inclusions in cervical lymph nodes
- Branchial cleft with thyroid cancer (BMJ Case Rep 2012;2012)
- Benign
- Many cases are actually parasitic nodule
- True ectopic thyroid of lateral location is extremely rare compared to midline location
- Displaced thyroid tissue after trauma / surgery (Ann Diagn Pathol 2004;8:61)
