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Surgical approach to level VI in papillary thyroid carcinoma: an overview

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Abstract

One of the most controversial issues in the treatment of thyroid cancer is the management of the central neck nodes in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Lymph node involvement is common in patients with PTC and it may negatively affect recurrence rate and, probably, survival. Although therapeutic compartment-oriented central neck dissection is the standard treatment for patients with clinical nodal involvement (cN1) PTC, the role and the extension for elective or prophylactic central neck dissection (PCND) in patients with clinically node negative (cN0) neoplasms remains controversial. In recent years, in order to decrease the risk of postoperative complications related to PCND, unilateral central neck dissection has emerged as an alternative approach to bilateral central neck dissection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Semeiotica Chirurgica, U.O. Chirurgia Endocrina e Metabolica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Policlinico A. Gemelli, L.go A. Gemelli 8, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Carmela De Crea, Marco Raffaelli, Luca Sessa, Celestino Pio Lombardi & Rocco Bellantone

Authors
  1. Carmela De Crea
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  2. Marco Raffaelli
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  3. Luca Sessa
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  4. Celestino Pio Lombardi
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  5. Rocco Bellantone
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Contributions

Study conception and design: CPL, MR, and RB. Acquisition of the data: CC and LS. Analysis and interpretation of data: CPL, MR, CC, and LS. Drafting of manuscript: CPL, MR, CC, and LS. Critical revision of manuscript: RB, CPL, and MR.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Raffaelli.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

The present manuscript is compliant with ethical standard. This study does not involve any kind of animal related contacts or experiments by any of the listed authors.

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All the patients included gave their informed consent.

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De Crea, C., Raffaelli, M., Sessa, L. et al. Surgical approach to level VI in papillary thyroid carcinoma: an overview. Updates Surg 69, 205–209 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-017-0468-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-017-0468-2

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