RESUMO
Objective:To understand the correlation of different ultrasound characteristics with thyroid cancer, and evaluate the effect and safety of different surgical strategies in pathological suspected cancer and highly suspected cancer by pure ultrasound.Methods:The clinical data of 679 patients (787 thyroid nodules) underwent thyroid surgery from August 2016 to December 2019 in Beijing Daxing District People′s Hospital were retrospectively analyzed, including ultrasound characteristics (echo, margin, form, ratio of tall to wide, calcification), surgery data (operation time, surgical strategies, whether the second surgery), recovery process (whether combined with secondary injury, including hoarse voice and choking on drinking water; drainage tube retention time and postoperative drainage), pathological examination results (pathological types, whether included parathyroid gland in the submitted specimen and whether lymph node metastasis). The effect and safety were compared between dissection and non-dissection of central group lymph nodes in pathological suspected cancer patients and highly suspected cancer by pure ultrasound patients.Results:Among the 787 thyroid nodules, 316 nodules (40.2%) were malignant nodules, including 308 papillary carcinomas; 471 nodules (59.8%) were benign nodules. The rates of low echo, unclear margin, form irregularity, ratio of tall to wide >1 and microcalcification in malignant nodules were significantly higher than those in benign nodules: 90.5% (286/316) vs. 38.9% (183/471), 52.5% (166/316) vs. 11.5% (54/471), 53.8% (170/316) vs. 11.5% (54/471), 30.4% (96/316) vs. 5.5%(26/471) and 65.5% (207/316) vs. 8.7% (41/471), and there were statistical differences ( P<0.01). Among 26 patients with pathological suspected cancer, there were no statistical difference in operation time, drainage tube retention time, postoperative drainage, surgical complications and paraffin pathology result between patients with dissection of central group lymph nodes (17 cases) and patients without dissection of central group lymph nodes (9 cases) ( P>0.05); the patients with dissection of the central group lymph nodes were all proved to be cancer by paraffin pathology examination. The highly suspected cancer by pure ultrasound was in 57 cases, there were no statistical difference in operation time, drainage tube retention time, postoperative drainage, choking on drinking water or hoarse voice between patients with dissection of central group lymph nodes (23 cases) and patients without that dissection (34 cases) ( P>0.05); the incidence of parathyroid gland in the submitted specimen and malignant rate of paraffin pathology result in patients with dissection of central group lymph nodes were significantly higher than those without that dissection: 39.1% (9/23) vs. 2.9% (1/34) and 30.4% (7/23) vs. 8.8% (3/34), and there were statistical differences ( P<0.01 or <0.05). Conclusions:Thyroid ultrasound characteristics have important predictive value. It is recommended to clean central group lymph node in most cases of pathological suspected cancer; while when highly suspected cancer by pure ultrasound happens, it is recommended to clean lymph node only when lymph node metastasis is highly suspected.