Goiter

At Baylor Medicine, our endocrinologists are specifically trained in the treatment of goiters. This relatively common disease is often treated in our outpatient clinic.

A goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland, which is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of the neck. A goiter often causes a noticeable swelling in the front of the neck.

A goiter can be caused by an array of things, most commonly, a lack of iodine in the diet, a tumor or nodule on the gland, a thyroid disease, or, in rare cases, cancer. In many parts of the world, goiters are most common in people who have hypothyroidism, in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone, related to a low-iodine diet. In the United States, most people with goiters have chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto's thyroiditis). This occurs when the body’s immune system damages the thyroid.