[Surgical treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma]

Being the excellent prognosis, the extension of the thyroidectomy in the surgical management of differentiated thyroid carcinomas is still controversial: some authors recommend total thyroidectomy for all patients, others suggest a conservative approach, that guarantee the same good prognosis but is associated with fewer complications. Even the cervical lymph node dissection is discussed, both regarding to the indications and the extension. The authors reported a retrospective review of their experience of the last 10 years on 75 patients operated for differentiated thyroid cancer, 61 for papillary carcinoma and 14 for follicular carcinoma; 18 of them were men and 57 females, with a mean age of 48.2 years. We performed a total of 85 operations: 60 total thyroidectomy, 15 lobus-isthmusectomies and 10 completion thyroidectomy. Lymphadenectomy was performed in 17 patients with clinically or intraoperative evidence of enlarged lymph nodes. There was no surgical mortality. Permanent hypoparathyroidism occurred in 5 patients (5.8%) and permanent accidental laryngeal recurrent nerve injury, both monolateral, occurred in 2 cases (2.35%). The mean follow up was 53 months (4.5 years): 71 patients are still alive (94.7%), 68 of them disease free (90.6%) and 3 with recurrent disease (4%). Our results suggest that total thyroidectomy still represent the choice procedure for the treatment of differentiated carcinomas and that modified radical neck dissection is necessary in these patients with pre or intraoperative evidence of palpable lymph nodes. Some patients go well even undergoing more conservative surgery (lobectomy) but most problem is the impossibility to preoperatively identify these patients.