Clinical research about level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes and the lymph nodes posterior to the right recurrent laryngeal nerve of the papillary thyroid carcinoma / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to discuss when to dissect the lymph nodes behind the right recurrent laryngeal nerve (LN-prRLN) from the standpoint of the right cervical level Ⅵ-1 (superficial layer to the recurrent laryngeal nerve) lymph nodes in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients.METHODS The clinical data of 306 bilateral or right PTC patients from the Hangzhou First People's Hospital who underwent dissection of level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes and LN-prRLN between March 2014 and September 2015 were analyzed. We measured the number of level Ⅵ-1 metastatic lymph nodes and size of level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes metastasis loci to predict the metastasis of LN-prRLN.RESULTS The number of level Ⅵ-1 metastatic lymph nodes and size of level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes metastasis loci were risk factors of LN-prRLN metastasis(P<0.05). When the number of the level Ⅵ-1 metastatic lymph nodes was greater than 1.5, the AUC was 0.813 (the sensitivity was 78.43%, the specificity was 76.65%). The ROC showed that when the size of level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes metastasis loci were more than 0.45 cm, the AUC was 0.726 (sensitivity was 90.20%, specificity was 48.90%).CONCLUSION In bilateral or right PTC patients with metastasis of level Ⅵ-1 lymph nodes, especially when the number of level Ⅵ-1 metastatic lymph nodes was greater than 2cm and the metastasis loci were more than 0.45 cm, we should dissect the LN-prRLN.