Should we perform routine prophylactic central neck dissection in patients with thyroid papillary microcarcinoma?

Cervical lymph node (LN) metastases in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are common in tumors especially that are larger than 1cm. Ipsilateral central neck dissection (CND) is usually preferred even in the absence of a palpable LN. This study aims to clarify the incidence and predictive factors for occult ipsilateral central LN metastasis in these patients, and the management of patients without clinical evidence of metastasis.

204 PTC patients were studied. The patients were divided into two according to the tumor size of ≤5mm or larger. Patient demographics, tumor properties, LN metastasis, preoperative neck ultrasonography findings and surgical outcomes were analyzed.

There were 152 patients in study group-1 (nodule > 5 mm) and 52 patients in group-2 (nodule ≤ 5 mm). The mean tumor size was 11.9 mm. Overall, preoperative neck ultrasonography showed central neck LN in 25 (12.3%) patients, however, final pathology revealed metastatic LN at central compartment in 59 (28.9%) patients. There were 56 (27.5%) patients with metastasis in group-1 compared to 3 (1.4%) patients in group-2.

Prophylactic CND is advised in PTC for the reduction of recurrence in central compartment. According to our results, in patients with tumors smaller than 5 mm and without evidence of nodal metastasis in preoperative neck ultrasonography, we do not recommend prophylactic CND.