Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Comparative Study
Total Thyroidectomy vs Thyroid Lobectomy for Localized Papillary Thyroid Cancer in Children: A Propensity-Matched Survival Analysis.
Current guidelines recommend total thyroidectomy (TT) and radioablation for most papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in children. These guidelines have been criticized as aggressive, especially for early-stage PTC, as it likely does not influence patient survival and results in life-long thyroid hormone replacement. We sought to study whether the extent of thyroidectomy (TT vs thyroid lobectomy [TL]) influences overall and disease-specific survival in children with localized PTC. ⋯ This study suggests that the extent of thyroidectomy does not influence survival for pediatric patients with early-stage PTC and that TL might be adequate in this patient population.