[Recurrences after thyroid lobectomy for benign thyroid diseases: analysis of a clinical-instrumental follow up].

The authors propose to verify the therapeutical role of lobectomy in confronting monolobar nodular thyroid disease. In a period of 4 years (1990-1993), forty-four patients (30 women, 14 men) underwent thyroid lobectomy for a benign disease and follow-up treatment for 3 years on a semestral basis. All patient were studied both before the operation and during the follow-up using US and measuring the levels of T3, T4 and TSH; 34 patients (77.2%) had undergone a scintigraphy before surgery. The indication towards surgical intervention was, in 16 patients, consequent to the diagnosis of monolobar uninodular goiter and in 28 patients to monolobar plurinodular goiter. The operation involves thyroidal extracapsular lobectomy with isthmectomy. There were no temporary and/or permanent recurrential lesions, nor there were any significant hypocalcaemic alterations. The US description of the follow-up has been classified in four groups: normal, non-homogeneity (presence of simple parenchymal non-homogeneity), recurrence/non-homogeneity (presence of both pseudonodular forms and parenchymal non-homogeneity), recurrence (presence of recurrence with nodule(s) whose diameter is greater than 5 mm.). From the US follow-up examination, it was shown that 14 out of 44 patients (31.8%) presented alterations in the residual lobe wich were not identifiable in the pre-operative US examination (3 recurrences = 6.81%; recurrence/non-homogeneity = 2.27%; 10 non-homogeneity = 22.7%). Thirteen out of 14 patients are treated with substitutive ormonal therapy Out of these 30 patients whose residual lobe shows no alterations using US, 23 (70.6%) are treated with substitutive ormonal therapy. The authors have underlined a substantial percentage difference between the incidence of normality of the residual lobe during follow-up to lobectomy due to adenoma (normality 88.8%) and to lobectomy due to goiter-related lesions (normality 60%). During US follow-up examinations, abnormality percentages equal or superior to 30%--as those noticed after lobectomy due to goiter-related lesions underline the doubts wich characterize any form of partial thyroidal asportation (4 recurrence in 35 cases of monolobar uni- or plurinodular goiter = 11.4%); also, in the authors' experience, substitutive ormonal therapy has seemingly no effect on the recurrence incidence. According to the authors, the lobectomy can occupy a therapeutical role in thyroid diseases with monolobar expression, but to avoid an elevated number of recurrences, a rigorous evaluation of the real extension of the nodular disease is indispensable.