[Regional lymph node recurrence in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma who did not undergo neck dissection]

It is important and difficult problem to manage patients with thyroid nodules which are indeterminate as papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) before surgery and identified as PTC after surgery. This paper highlighted whether immediate reoperation for such patients should be undergone or not. The prognosis of 196 patients with PTC who underwent lobectomy or subtotal thyroidectomy without neck dissection were studied (non-dissection group). The controls consisted of 783 patients with non-advanced PTC who underwent radical surgery during the same period (dissection group). There was no death due to PTC in both groups. Distant metastasis was observed 1.5% in non-dissection group and 2.2% in the dissection group. Local recurrence was observed 9.7% in the non-dissection group and 11.2% in the dissection group. The results suggested that immediate reoperation for the patient's who did not undergo neck dissection, is not necessary. It is thought that all of lymph node metastasis detected only by histology does not always behave in same.