Controversies about the central compartment in thyroid cancer : Editorial regarding the article 'Clinical impact of cervical lymph node involvement and central neck dissection in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of 368 cases' by Alexandre Bozec et al.

摘要

Alexandra Bozec et al. [1]. discuss their experience with 368 patients undergoing central compartment neck dissection in this contemporary article. The issue of central compartment neck dissection continues to be controversial in the modern era. The management of thyroid cancer has always been a controversial subject;however, the major thrust of debate has switched from total versus less than total thyroidectomy to the indications for routine prophylactic central compartment neck dissection[2] and the use of postoperative radioactive iodine ablation. These issues have seen a major paradigm shift over the past 10-15 years, primarily due to our ability to detect the early recurrent disease with thyroglobulin assay and routine follow-up ultrasound of the neck.