Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, is scheduled to be released from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore this afternoon after a surgeon successfully removed a growth from her thyroid.

Tests to determine whether the nodule was cancerous are to be made public early next week, her office said. The surgery, a right thyroid lobectomy, was performed after an earlier test was inconclusive.

Mrs. Gore's spokeswoman, Camille Johnston, said the nodule was discovered "a couple of months ago as an incidental finding" during a follow-up examination for an exercise-related injury.

"It had been watched for several months and then last week they determined they would remove it as a precautionary measure," she said.

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Mr. Gore's surgeon, Robert Udelsman, said in a statement released last night by the vice president's office: "Earlier diagnostic studies, including a fine needle aspiration, were inconclusive. Today's surgery was performed without complication and Mrs. Gore is resting comfortably. The final pathology review of the specimen is pending and will be available next week."

The vice president stayed overnight with Mrs. Gore at the hospital, and the couple's four children visited, Johnston said.

A hospital official said Mrs. Gore "was in very good condition, and slept well through the night."

A White House physician, Richard Tubb, participated in the surgery and came out to report to the family after the surgery, which lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes and was performed under general anesthesia.

Mrs. Gore consulted Udelsman, a Johns Hopkins physician, because he is an expert in endocrinology and decided to remain in his care, Johnston said.

Johns Hopkins is the hospital where the Gore's son, Albert Gore III, then 6 years old, was treated after he was severely injured in an automobile accident in 1989. The Gores returned in part because they were "very comfortable with the quality of the care they received there," Johnston said.

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