[Lymphadenectomy in thyroid gland carcinoma--staging and therapy]

The aim of our study was to evaluate elective lymphadenectomy in surgical management of thyroid cancer. Since 1990 we have performed thyroidectomy with modified lymphadenectomy in 265 patients operated because of thyroid cancer. In 33 cases (14.5%) selective lymphadenectomies and in 232 (85.5%) cases elective lymphadenectomies were performed, respectively, including 93 cases of papillary carcinoma, 114 cases with follicular carcinoma, 12 cases with medullary carcinoma and 13 cases with anaplastic carcinoma. Histopathological examination revealed metastases in 21 of 232 cases (9.05%): 11 of 93 (11.83%) patients with papillary carcinoma 7 of 114 (6.14%) patients with follicular carcinoma 1 of 12 (8.33%) patients with medullary carcinoma and 2 of 13 (15.38%) patients with anaplastic carcinoma, respectively. In these 21 patients (9.05%) elective lymphadenectomy is supposed to be a curative procedure switching the TNM-classification from N0 to N1.