Complications of Neck Dissection in Thyroid Malignancy

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy; recent decades have witnessed a steady increase in its incidence. The optimal strategy for treatment of patients with thyroid cancer is complete surgical resection of clinically and radiologically evident disease within the neck. Cervical lymph node metastases are common in papillary thyroid cancer and are associated with a significant probability for loco-regional recurrence of the disease, even in low-risk patients. The present study included 20 patients with thyroid cancer. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy plus neck dissection. The aim of this study was to characterize the morbidity and complications of neck dissection in thyroid malignancy. There were fifteen females (75 %) and five males (52%), their age ranged between 26 and 70 years with a mean of 50 years. All patients were subjected to thorough history taking, complete clinical examination and vocal cord assessment by indirect laryngoscopy. Laboratory investigations (Free T3, Free T4, TSH, serum Ca, and routine laboratory work up), followed by neck ultrasonography (US), and computed tomography (CT) were