In order to assist the surgeons in the fast histological inspection of the excised tissues during the thyroid surgery, a home-made optical coherence tomography (OCT) system is used for the three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the excised tissues from the patients receiving the thyroid surgery and lymphadenectomy. The 3D OCT images are also compared with the corresponding two-dimensional OCT images and the histological images. The 67 high-resolution 3D OCT images with 1000 pixel×1000 pixel×630 pixel are acquired from the excised tissues of the 21 patients and the corresponding imaging range is 6 mm×6 mm×3.8 mm. It is convenient to observe the 3D OCT images from different perspectives or cross-sectional planes. The thyroid, parathyroid, lymph node and fat within the imaging range can be clearly identified, and the malignant lesions of lymphatic metastasis can also be distinguished. This high speed and high resolution 3D OCT imaging provides a method for the intraoperative histopathology and is promising to assist the surgeons for their intraoperative decision.