Video-assisted thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid carcinoma

Background. the results of video-assisted thyroidectomy (vat) were evaluated in a large series of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (ptc),especially in terms of completeness of the surgical resection and short-to-medium term recurrence. methods. the medical records of all patients who underwent video-assisted thyroidectomy for ptc between june 1998 and may 2009 were reviewed. results. three hundred fifty-nine patients were included. one hundred twenty-six patients underwent concomitant central neck node removal. final histology showed 285 pt1,26 pt2,and 48 pt3 ptc. lymph node metastases were found in 27 cases. follow-up was completed in 315 patients. mean postoperative serum thyroglobulin level off levothyroxine was 5.4ng/ml. post operative ultrasonography showed no residual thyroid tissue in all the patients. mean post-operative 131i uptake was 1.7. one patient developed lateral neck recurrence. no other recurrence was observed. copyright © 2010 celestino pio lombardi et al.