Treatment efficacy between total thyroidectomy and lobectomy for patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: A systemic review and meta-analysis

Introduction

This systemic review and meta-analysis was to determine whether the recurrence and mortality rates in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) patients were lower when treated with total thyroidectomy (TT) compared to thyroid lobectomy (TL).

Methods

Using PubMed, Cochrane library and EMBASE databases, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the clinical outcomes in patients with PTMC based on surgical mode. The relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for this meta-analysis.

Results

A total of 11 cohort studies that comprised of 13,801 patients met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review and meta-analysis. Overall, low recurrence rates were observed in the TT group compared to the TL group (RR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.35 to 0.94, P_{heterogeneity} = 0.002, I² = 65.2%), however, no significant differences were observed between the two surgical methods for mortality rates (RR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.27 to 2.54, P_{heterogeneity} = 0.023, I² = 68.5%). For subgroup analysis based on country and sample size, no significant differences were observed between the two groups for recurrence rates.

Conclusion

Our meta-analysis indicates that patients who underwent thyroid lobectomy had an increased risk of recurrence but not mortality compared to patients who had total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma.