Operation for differentiated thyroid cancer: a experience of 546 cases / 中华外科杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To approach reasonable operational mode of differentiated thyroid cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Retrospectively review 546 differentiated thyroid cancer patients who received bilateral thyroidectomy with or without cervical lymph node excision from January 2001 to December 2006.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>No death case happened during operation and hospitalization. The positive percentage of cervical lymph node metastasis was 76.2% (358/470). The incidence rate of single lateral recurrent laryngeal nerve injury was 1.1% (6 cases), parathyroid gland partly injury was 0.4% (2 cases), superior laryngeal nerve injury was 0.7% (4 cases), bleeding was 0.6% (3 cases) and esophagus injury after operation was 0.2% (1 case). There were no bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve injury found.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Total thyroidectomy is an essential operational mode for differentiated thyroid cancer. It is necessary to excise cervical lymph node when the tumor's diameter exceeds 1 cm.</p>