Table 1.

Patient characteristics (n = 44)

Variables	No. of patients (%)
Total	44
Age
Median (range); years	59 (17-85)
Gender
Male	19 (43)
Female	25 (57)
Type of surgery
Hemithyroidectomy with unilateral ND	3 (7) 1 (2)
Subtotal thyroidectomy with unilateral ND with central LND	11 (25) 4 (9) 1 (2)
Total thyroidectomy with central LND with unilateral ND	7 (16)4 (9) 2 (5)
with bilateral ND	11 (25)
Tumour stage
T1/2 T3/4	24 (55) 20 (45)
Lymph node metastasis
N0N1a/b	41 (93) 3 (7)
Distant metastasis
M0 M1	38 (86) 6 (14)
UICC stage
UICC I/II UICC III/IV	22 (50) 22 (50)

Abbreviations: ND: neck dissection; LND: lymph node dissection; UICC: Union internationale contre le cancer.