Objectives: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy with favorable histologic and prognostic characteristics. Total or near total thyroidectomy has been used as a standard surgical procedure. The aims of this study are to determine the extent of resection of thyroid gland and to find the influencing factors of lymph node metastasis.
Materials and Methods: The authors reviewed the records of 194 patients of thyroid cancer surgically treated at Department of General Surgery, Inje University Busan Paik Hospital from January, 1996 to December, 2000. Pathologic classifications, surgical procedures, and lymph node metastasis were analyzed.
Results: There were 163 women and 31 men. The age ranged from 12 to 79 years old (mean age 43.2 years). The histological classifications of 194 cases revealed papillary cancer in 171 cases (88.1%), follicular cancer in 17 cases (8.8%), undifferentiated cancer in 3 cases (1.6%), medullary cancer in 2 cases (1.0%) and mixed cancer in 1 case (0.5%). Among the 194 patients, lobectomy was perfomed in 31 patients, subtotal thyroidectomy in 30 patients, near total thyroidectomy in 82 patients and total thyroidectomy in 51 patients. In the subgroup of papillary carcinoma 141 cases with lymph node dissection, lymph node metastasis had no statistical significance according to sex, age and primary tumor size.
Conclusions: The mainly performed surgical procedures were total thyroidectomy and near total thyroidectomy. In thyroid cancer surgery, the extent of resection was influenced by age, differentiation and primary tumor size. The lymph node dissection should be decided by lymph node metastasis identified by preoperative radiologic evaluation or intraoperative lymph node findings.
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