Risk factors analysis for level VI lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma(cN_0)

Background and purpose:The way of the lymph node metastases and the method of lymph node dissection of papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) are currently the research focus of thyroid surgery.This study was to analyze the risk factors of level Ⅵ lymph node involvement for patients with PTC without clinical cervical lymph node metastasis(cN0).Methods:Consecutive 305 cases underwent total thyroidectomy and level VI lymph node dissection from Jan.2011 to Dec.2011 were analyzed retrospectively.According to the postoperative pathology results,univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to analyze risk factors.Results:The central compartment lymph node metastasis rate of PTC patients was 43.93%.Tumor size,age,extra-capsular invasion,and bilateral lesions were significantly corrrelated to lymph node metastasis(P0.05).The(cN0) PTC has a high rate of pathological lymph node metastasis,especially in patients with age more than 45 years old,extra-capsular invasion.Conclusion:It is important to conduct the thyroidectomy with ipsilateral level Ⅵ lymph node dissection of PTC patients.