Ectopic cervical thymoma mimicking as papillary thyroid carcinoma: a diagnostic dilemma.

Ectopic cervical thymomas are often confused with thyroid or parathyroid swellings due to their anatomical positioning. Predominant epithelial thymoma can be misdiagnosed as papillary thyroid carcinoma on fine needle aspiration and lymph node metastasis of epithelial tumor on frozen section. Predominantly lymphocytic thymomas have often been misinterpreted as Hashimoto's thyroiditis or malignant lymphoma, either by fine needle aspiration or on frozen section analysis. If cytology is doubtful and is not correlating with clinical, anatomical and surgical findings; immunohistochemistry is a very important tool in such cases to give final answer. Thyroid cell specific proteins such as thyroglobulin, thyroid transcription factor-1, thyroperoxidase and dipeptidyl aminopeptidase-4, neuroendocrine markers chromogranin, calcitonin and parathyroid hormone could be used to rule out thyroid or parathyroid origin. We present such rare case of ectopic cervical thymoma mimicking as papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Minimal access surgery - thyroid and parathyroid.

The concept of surgical invasiveness cannot be limited to the length or to the site of the skin incision. It must be extended to all structures dissected during the procedure. Therefore, MIT or MIP should properly be defined as operations through a short and discrete incision that permits direct access to the thyroid or parathyroid gland, resulting in a focused dissection.Parathyroid glands are particularly suitable for minimally invasive surgery as most parathyroid tumors are small and benign. MIP are performed through a limited or discrete incision when compared to classic open transverse cervical incision and are targeted on one specific parathyroid gland. The concept of these limited explorations is based on the fact that 85% of patients will have single-gland disease. MIP must be proposed only for patients with sporadic hyperparathyroidism in whom a single adenoma has been clearly localized by preoperative imaging studies.The minimal access approaches to the thyroid gland may be broadly classified into three groups: the mini-open lateral approach via a small incision, minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy via the midline and various endoscopic techniques. Endoscopic extracervical approaches have the main advantage of leaving no scar in the neck but cannot reasonably be described as minimally invasive as they require more dissection than conventional open surgery.Initially the indications for MIT were a solitary thyroid nodule of less than 3 cm in diameter in an otherwise normal gland. Today, MIT are also proposed in patients with small nodular goiters, Graves's diseases and low risk papillary thyroid cancers. Some concern remains about the radicality of MIT in this latter group but preliminary results are comparable to those of conventional surgery both in terms of I-131 uptake and serum thyroglobuline levels.Demonstrating the advantages of MIT and MIP over conventional surgery is not easy. Main complications, such as nerve injury, hypoparathyroidism, or hemorrhage, are the same as in conventional surgery. Several studies comparing conventional surgery with minimally invasive techniques using a cervical access have shown a diminution of postoperative pain, and better cosmetic results with minimally invasive techniques. MIP and MIT seem overall to be an advance but only randomized studies will demonstrate the real benefit.

Significance of biochemical parameters in differentiating uniglandular from multiglandular disease and limiting use of intraoperative parathormone assay.

BACKGROUND: We studied whether serum calcium and parathormone (PTH) levels are significantly different for uniglandular disease (UGD) and multiglandular disease (MGD) and whether intraoperative rapid intact parathormone (IOPTH) monitoring can be avoided in some cases of minimally invasive parathyroidectomy (MIP) without affecting cure rates, substantiating various previous published studies. METHOD: This is a single-referral-center retrospective review of prospectively collected data for 281 patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism (sPHPT) from January 1999 to February 2005. The calcium and PTH values were categorized using the following parameters: calcium > or = 3 mmol/l = 1, < 3 mmol/l = 0, PTH > or = 100 pg/ml = 1, PTH < 100 = 1. RESULTS: P values for serum calcium and PTH by ANOVA were 0.0547 and 0.3936, respectively, and by the Mann-Whitney test were 0.1606 and 0.6208, respectively. We had 118 patients with concordant technetium 99 m sestamibi scintigraphy (MIBI) and neck ultrasonography (US) and UGD was confirmed in 118 (100%) cases. CONCLUSIONS: No significant difference between serum calcium and PTH for UGD and MGD was found. IOPTH monitoring could be avoided when there is concordant positive MIBI and neck US for single, unilateral, hyperfunctioning gland without affecting cure rates.

Safety of laparoscopic adrenalectomy in patients with large pheochromocytomas: a single institution review.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is the procedure of choice for small adrenal tumors, but some concerns have been voiced when this approach is adopted for larger tumors and pheochromocytomas. The aim of this study was to examine the results of the laparoscopic resection of large pheochromocytomas. METHODS: A retrospective review of adrenalectomies performed for adrenal pheochromocytomas>6 cm in diameter. We compiled and analyzed the early operative complications, histologic findings, and cure rates with a minimum of 1 year of follow-up after surgery. RESULTS: From 1996 to 2005, a total of 445 laparoscopic adrenalectomies were performed in our institution using the anterolateral transperitoneal approach. From this series we identified 18 procedures for pheochromocytomas with an average diameter on imaging of 78.2 mm (range 60-130 mm). All patients were rendered safe with a standard departmental protocol involving calcium-channel blockade initiated at least 2 weeks prior to surgery. The average peak intraoperative blood pressure was 187 mmHg. Capsular disruption occurred in two cases. One patient required an intraoperative blood transfusion due to intraoperative blood loss. No immediate conversions to an open procedure were required, but one patient underwent a delayed laparotomy for hematoma formation. Histologically, four of the adrenal tumors displayed evidence of vascular invasion. Biochemical cure was achieved in all patients after a median follow-up of 58 months (16-122 months). CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy appears to be a safe and effective approach for large pheochromocytomas when no preoperative or intraoperative evidence of local invasion is present.