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Endoscopic thyroidectomy along with bilateral central neck dissection (ETBC) increases the risk of transient hypoparathyroidism for patients with thyroid carcinoma

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Abstract

Increasing number of patients with thyroid carcinoma, especially young female patients, prefer to choose endoscopic thyroidectomy with bilateral central neck dissection (ETBC) for perfect cosmetic effects. However, the incidence of hypoparathyroidism after ETBC has not been well studied. Ninety six patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma were enrolled. All patients, including 49 ETBC and 47 open surgery patients, underwent total thyroidectomy with bilateral central neck dissection (CND). Some patients also underwent lateral neck dissection simultaneously. The incidence of hypoparathyroidism and parathyroid hormone (PTH) level were examined. Patients in the open surgery group had more advanced lesions, with larger tumor (p = 0.000), older age (p = 0.000), and more serious local involvement. The dissection extent of the open group was significantly larger than that of the ETBC group (p = 0.006). In contrast, the ETBC group with less dissection extent showed a significantly higher incidence of transient hypoparathyroidism than the open group (59.2 vs. 29.6 %, p = 0.004). The average PTH decline of the ETBC group was significantly higher than that of the open group on postoperative day 1 (POD1) (32.1 vs. 21.6 pg/ml, p = 0.010). Furthermore, the ETBC group had a significantly higher portion of patients with a PTH <10 pg/ml on POD1 (p = 0.001). One patient in the ETBC group developed permanent hypoparathyroidism. Autotransplantation and inadvertent removal rates of parathyroid did not differ between the two groups. Although generally considered a safe method for patients with thyroid carcinoma, ETBC may increase the risk of transient hypoparathyroidism compared with conventional open surgery.

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Abbreviations

CND:

Central neck dissection

LND:

Lateral neck dissection

ETBC:

Endoscopic thyroidectomy with bilateral central neck dissection

PTH:

Parathyroid hormone

POD1:

Postoperative day 1

RLN:

Recurrent laryngeal nerve

FNA:

Fine-needle aspiration

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grants 2013C33134 and 2016C33141 from Science Technology Department of Zhejiang Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 88 Jiefang Avenue, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang Province, China

    Dapeng Xiang, Zhiyu Li, Ping Wang, Mao Ye & Mingzhu Zhu

  2. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Liangqi Xie

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  1. Dapeng Xiang
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  2. Liangqi Xie
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Correspondence to Zhiyu Li.

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Xiang, D., Xie, L., Li, Z. et al. Endoscopic thyroidectomy along with bilateral central neck dissection (ETBC) increases the risk of transient hypoparathyroidism for patients with thyroid carcinoma. Endocrine 53, 747–753 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-016-0884-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-016-0884-y

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