[Thyroid microcarcinoma]

ABSTRACT

The incidence of differentiated thyroid microcarcinoma is increasing because of the practice of total thyroidectomy and advances in pathological techniques. Prognosis is considered to he excellent but the lack of consensus on the practical management and the aggressive character of some tumours justify the analysis of the prognostic factors. We report in this retrospective study 75 cases of thyroid microcarcinoma and their characteristics. A papillary carcinoma was found in 89% of our cases, multiple loci in 15%, involvement of the local nodes in 7% and a distant metastasis in 3%. Total thyroidectomy was performed in all our cases and a radio-iodine treatment was given to 61% of our patients