Objective:

To analyze new 2015 guidelines from the American Thyroid Association (ATA) compared to 2009, and their impact on thyroidectomy extension in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Material and methods:

Retrospective study of patients with papillary thyroid cancer, who had surgery in two different periods, 2013-2016 (group A) and 2017-2018 (group B), comparing the number of hemithyroidectomies (HT) vs total thyroidectomies (TT), whether or not to perform lymph node dissection (DG), hospital stay, and perioperative complications.

Results:

108 patients were studied, 54 in each group, comparing group A to group B: there were no differences in the number of HT (3 vs 2) and TT (51 vs 52). Performing a higher number of central DG (22 vs 32) and modified radical 7 vs 9. No significant difference was found in HT surgery time (100.0 ± 29.4 vs 135.0 ± 15.0 min [p = 0.569]), nor in TT (114.0 ± 40.9 vs 127.9 ± 63.8 min [p = 0.877]), bleeding (28.5 ± 45.2 vs 28.9 ± 89.6 mL [p = 0.977]) and length of stay (2.1 ± 1.3 vs 1.9 ± 0.9 [p = 0.374]).

Conclusions:

The recommendations of the extension in surgery had no impact on the surgical attitude. Complications were similar.