Recurrence of Thyroid Nodules after Surgical Removal in Patients Irradiated in Childhood

To the Editor: In an analysis of their data on recurrence of thyroid nodules after surgery in patients irradiated for benign conditions, Fogelfeld et al. (March 30 issue) 1 report that 19.5 percent of the patients had a recurrence during a median follow-up of 11.2 years. Furthermore, the extent of surgery performed initially correlated inversely with the recurrence rate. On the basis of our experience in 1400 patients, we have also advocated near-total thyroidectomy for any patient who has received radiation in infancy or childhood. 2 , 3 We observed that carcinoma was multifocal in 36 percent of the patients, it could occur at . . .