{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03360433604336043, 'fraction_numerical': 0.02710027100271003, 'mean_word_length': 5.27891156462585, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Incidental Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: Experience from A Tertiary Care Center in South India

Introduction: Papillary thyroid cancers that are less than 10mm are diagnosed as papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. There is a rising incidence of incidental microcarcinomas and the consensus regarding management and follow up is still evolving. Material and Methods: This was a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with incidental PTMC over a period of 6 years between September 2012 and August 2018 at Department of Endocrine Surgery, Madras Medical College Hospital, a tertiary care institute in south India. Among 1730 thyroidectomies performed during this study period, 42 cases of papillary microcarcinomas were incidentally detected. The patient’s clinical presentation, pathological features, management, and follow-up were obtained. The data was analyzed and compared with that of published literature. Results: The mean age of presentation was 45.2 years with a male-female ratio of 1:6. Most of the patients (95.2%) had goiter at presentation. Two patients (4.8%) were diagnosed to have Graves’ disease. Total thyroidectomy was performed in all patients. Only one (2.4%) patient received I131 ablation following surgery. The mean tumor size was 6.2 mm. All patients had disease confined to one lobe with 39(92.86%) patients had a unifocal disease and 3(7.14%) had a multifocal disease. The extrathyroidal extension was noted in one (2.4%) patient. The mean duration of follow up was 36 months and the recurrence rate was 4.8%. Conclusion: Papillary microcarcinomas are increasingly being diagnosed following surgery for benign thyroid diseases. Hence thorough histopathological examination is mandatory to identify these occult tumors. Incidental papillary micro carcinomas are less aggressive tumors with an excellent prognosis.