Abstract: Objective To study the effect of clinical pathway on nodular goiter. Methods Clinical data of nodular goiter treated in our department from November 2009 to August 2010 were investigated.One hundred and sixty-five patients with nodular goiter were divided into non-clinical pathway group(n=87) and clinical pathway group(n=78) and further divided into unilateral operation group and bilateral operation group according to different surgical procedures.Effect of different clinical pathways was assessed. Results The hospital stay time of unilateral surgery group was longer than that of bilateral operation group((7.79±2.69)d vs(6.55±1.36d)) and before admission to hospital than after admission to hospital((4.04±2.69)d vs(3.03±1.11d)).The hospital stay time of bilateral operation group decreased to(7.17±1.61)d from(8.00±2.62)d after operation and from(3.84±2.19)d before operation.The drug cost of unilateral operation group decreased to(3 716.6±1 668.1) yuan from(4 965.8±1 796.7) and the hospitalization fee decreased to(10 080.1±3 436.3) yuan from(10 366.1±3 509.7) yuan.The drug cost of bilateral operation group decreased to(4 428.2±1 558.2) yuan from(5 149.7±2 174.14) yuan and the hospitalization fee decreased to(11 283.5±2 716.9) yuan from(11 533.7±4 006.1) yuan.The incidence of adverse reactions and complications decreased to 6.41% from 14.94%,respectively,after surgery. Conclusion The implementation of clinical pathway can effectively shorten the hospital stay time of patients,decrease their hospitalization cost,reduce the incidence of adverse reactions and complications after surgery,and can thus be popularized in clinical practice.