Between November,1976 and December,1990,90 patients underwent surgical treatment for thyroid disease at our department. Fifty of these patients (55.6%) were pathologically diagnosed as having malignant tumors (papillary carcinomas in 38 cases, follicular carcinomas in 6, squamous cell carcinomas in 3, aplastic carcinomas in 2 and malignant lymphoma in 1 case). The 40 other patients (44.4%) were diagnosed as having benign diseases (adenomatous goiters in 13 cases, follicular adenomas in 13, thyroid cysts in 6, papillary adenomas in 4 and other diseases in the remaining 4 cases). All 17 patients, in whom recurrent nerve paralysis was observed preoperatively, had malignant tumors of papillary carcinomas in 14 cases, squamous cell carcinomas in 2 cases and follicular carcinoma in 1 case.
201Tl delayed scintigrams were obtained for 79 patients. Forty-seven of these patients (59.5%) showed abnormal activity on the delayed scintigram and 34 out of 47 patients were pathologically diagnosed as having malignant tumors.
Total or subtotal thyroidectomy was performed in 80% of the patients with malignant tumors and radical or modified neck dissection was carried out in 23 cases in which the metastasis of cervical lymph node was recognized.
Eleven of our patients showed recurrent nerve paralysis after the operation. In 3 of these cases, the recurrent nerve was dissected because of direct invasion into this nerve. In 5 of the remaining 8 cases, complete recovery from recurrent nerve paralysis occurred within 6 months following the operation, while 2 cases retained incomplete paralysis of this nerve.
