Incidental Papillary Thyroid Cancer Identified During Parathyroidectomy

Current treatment guidelines recommend surgical excision of papillary thyroid carcinoma. However, the precise surgical treatment, including thyroid lobectomy, total thyroidectomy, and the need for neck dissection, is dictated by disease extent and tumor cytology. Incidental papillary thyroid carcinoma discovered during another surgery therefore presents a surgical conundrum due to lack of information. Surgeons must consider short- and long-term surgical morbidities, as well as individual patient factors, when deciding how to treat an unexpected thyroid carcinoma.