Fine needle aspiration cytology(FNA) has became a clinically accepted screening test for its safty and accuracy in the patient with thyroid nodule during recent 10 years. However its clinically significance has not been correctively evaluated. We analyzed the surgical pathology of 81 thyroidectomy patients who had preoperative FNA and compared with the results obtained from 25 thyroidectomy patients who did not have preopertive FNA from 1990 through 1994 for evaluation of clinical value and limit of the FNA. We obtained following results : 1) FNA had a minor role in reducing the other diagnostic procedures in our series. 2) FNA was an effective procedure in reducing unneccssary thyroidectomy for benign thyroid nodule : high specificity(91.0%) of FNA. 3) FNA was of limited value in increasing necessary thyroidectomy for malignant thyroid nodule ; low sensitivity(72.2) of FNA. 4) FNA played a significant role in selecting thyroidectomy with 59.4% operative yield for malignant thyroid nodule.