Practice patterns for surgical management of low-risk papillary thyroid cancer from 2014 to 2019: A CESQIP analysis.

BACKGROUND

Patients with low-risk-PTC who undergo thyroid lobectomy (TL) have comparable disease-specific survival with lower morbidity than total thyroidectomy (TT). We aim to describe the surgical management of low-risk-PTC using the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program (CESQIP).

METHOD: CESQIP thyroidectomies of PTC tumors <4 cm were analyzed from 2014 to 2019 (n = 740). Postoperative outcomes were compared. Subgroup analysis examined temporal and institutional trends, and stratified for tumor size. Statistics utilized t-test, ANOVA, and Chi-squared.

RESULTS

TT patients had greater hypoparathyroidism, operative time, and length-of-stay (all p < 0.001). Incidence of TL decreased with increasing tumor size (24.2% for <1 cm, 15.8% for 1-2 cm, 6.1% for 2-4 cm). TL rates increased from 2.0% in 2014 to 21.2% in 2018-19. Completion thyroidectomy was recommended in 12.0% of TL subjects. There was significant variation in TL rate by institution (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

For low-risk-PTC, TT remained the most commonly utilized operation. TL rates increased following release of the new ATA guidelines. TT was associated with higher perioperative morbidity. Further insight is needed to understand factors influencing operative approach.