Predictors of lymph nodes posterior to the right recurrent laryngeal nerve metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma

The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with lymph nodes posterior to the right recurrent laryngeal nerve (LN-prRLN) metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).A total of 81 PTC patients who underwent total/near-total thyroidectomy with LN-prRLN dissection in the Department of General Surgery at Guangdong General Hospital between June 2015 and August 2016 were assessed retrospectively. The relations of LN-prRLN metastasis with clinicopathologic characteristics of PTC were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression.The incidence of LN-prRLN metastasis in patients with PTC was 51.9% (42 of 81 cases). Univariate analysis showed that lateral LN metastasis (P = .005), VIa central LN metastasis (P = .000), pathologic tumor size (P = .000), capsular invasion (P = .002), and extrathyroidal invasion (P = .018) (P < .05) were significantly associated with the increased incidence of LN-prRLN metastasis in PTC. No significant correlations were found between LN-prRLN metastasis and other variables such as gender (P = .056), age (P = .448), clinical N stage (cN) (P = .063), tumor location (P = .336), tumor site (P = .909), right tumor existence (P = .793), and multifocality (P = .381). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that VIa central LN metastasis (OR: 4.490, P = .027) was independent risk factors of LN-prRLN metastasis in patients with PTC.LN-prRLN metastasis is often indentified in patients with PTC. VIa central LN metastasis is an independent predictors of LN-prRLN metastasis, which allow for selective LN-prRLN dissection in patients with PTC.