Elective neck dissection in papillary carcinoma of the thyroid

We performed electively the jugular neck dissections for N0 44 patients with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. On jugular neck dissection, upper, middle and lower jugular nodes and supraclavicular nodes are removed . The pathological metastatic rate was 84% all nodes and 75% in the jugular nodes. A injury of the recurrent and the accessory and a chylorrhea are recognized in three patients as operative complications . On the hand, we performed therapeutically the modified radical neck dissection for Ni 35 patients The pathological metastatic rate was low in the accessory nodes ; 6% in the upper and in the lower region. Therefore, the jugular neck dissection is a reasonable and safety method and also has complication for the patients with NO nodal status of the thyroid cancer.