Thyroid Hemiagenesis and Papillary Carcinoma: A Rare Association

Hemiagenesis is the least frequent thyroid congenital anomaly. We report the case of a primary hypothyroidism due to thyroid hemiagenesisin a patient for whom, later on, a papillary carcinoma of the contralateral lobe was diagnosed. A child with known left lobe thyroid agenesiswas found to have a 12 mm nodule in the right thyroid lobe during routine follow-up. Needle biopsy demonstrated the nodule to represent apapillary thyroid cancer and total thyroidectomy and lymphadenectomy of the central compartment was undertaken. Such event representsan extremely rare occurrence since there are only five other reports in literature that deal with a papillary carcinoma in a patient with thyroidhemiagenesis.