Authors: Yasuhiro Ito Chisato Tomoda Takashi Uruno Yuuki Takamura Akihiro Miya Kaoru Kobayashi Fumio Matsuzuka Kanji Kuma Akira Miyauchi
Publish Date: 2005/12/16
Volume: 30, Issue: 1, Pages: 91-99
Abstract
We previously demonstrated that for papillary microcarcinoma PMC 1 patients with lateral lymph node metastasis detected on preoperative ultrasonography US are more likely to develop recurrence and 2 dissection of the lateral compartment does not improve the prognosis of patients without USdetectable lateral metastasis In this study we focused on metastasis from PMC to the central compartment We investigated the clinical significance of lymph nodes in the central compartment using the same series of 600 patients as used in the previous study Ultrasounddiagnosed central node metastasis could be found in 30 patients 200 Although the specificity of US for detecting central node metastasis was 991 sensitivity was only 109 Neither USdiagnosed nor pathologically confirmed central node metastasis affected the diseasefree survival DFS rate of PMC patients Furthermore in cases where PMC was located only in one lobe central node dissection in the contralateral lobe did not improve the DFS rate These findings suggest that for PMC 1 US is an insensitive technique for detecting the central node metastasis 2 the presence of central node metastasis is unrelated to DFS of patients and 3 when performing lobectomy for PMC involving only one lobe dissection of the central compartment in the contralateral lobe is optional
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