First surgery for thyroid cancer must be standardized

  A female patient, in her 50s, underwent thyroid cancer surgery three years ago in a tertiary care hospital in Anhui Province, and underwent lobectomy of one side of the gland + lymph node dissection in the lateral cervical region. One year ago, she underwent tracheal mass resection due to cough and the pathology was papillary thyroid carcinoma. 3 months ago, due to chest tightness, a tracheal mass in the neck was found to be obstructed and a recurrence of thyroid cancer was considered and a tracheotomy was performed. The patient was transferred to many tertiary hospitals and specialized hospitals in Shanghai, but was refused admission due to the complexity of her condition. If refused, the patient would soon have life-threatening tracheal obstruction when he visited our specialist outpatient clinic. After the Department of Nuclear Medicine, the Department of Five Gases, and my multiple efforts, the recurrent tumor was successfully removed, a T-tube was placed in the trachea, and postoperative isotope therapy was administered. The tracheal T-tube will be removed or not depending on the postoperative follow-up.  Reflecting on this case, there are many inadequacies in the treatment process: 1. whether the mass invaded the trachea in the first operation, and if so, whether partial tracheal resection should be done, or at least whether total thyroidectomy should be performed and postoperative isotope treatment should be remedied; 2. whether the second intratracheal recurrence can be removed, and whether total thyroidectomy should be performed and postoperative isotope treatment should be remedied.  The incidence of thyroid cancer has increased significantly in recent years. Although thyroid cancer has better surgical results. However, irregular treatment is prone to recurrence, and if recurrence is extremely poor, the disability rate is high, which seriously affects the quality of life. For patients, it is important to choose a specialist. For doctors, it is very important to standardize treatment, never bring endless pain to patients because of their unprofessionalism and non-standardization.