Search PubMedSearch

Biomedical subjects

I Schweizer

Publications and source records attributed to I Schweizer.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

[Small thyroid carcinomas: biological characteristics, diagnosis and therapy].

Small thyroid carcinomas (< or = 1.5 cm), including microcarcinomas (< or = 1.0 cm) (n = 39), were found in 53 patients (41%) with a papillary (n = 130) and in 4 cases (4%) with a follicular (n = 110) carcinoma. The tumour was clinically manifested by palpability or by the presence of nodal metastases in 1/3 of patients. Concomitant diagnoses were colloid goitre (n = 24), cellular adenoma (n = 11), Graves' disease (n = 6), and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (n = 4). Nodal involvement, multifocal tumour, and extrathyroidal extent (pT4) were present in 9%, 19%, and 8% of cases respectively. Small follicular carcinomas were minimally invasive in all instances. According to the age-related prognostic TNM-classification, 52 patients (91%) were in the low risk category. 18% of the patients underwent uni- or bilateral partial lobectomy, 35% hemithyroidectomy, and 47% total thyroidectomy, according to the extent and nature of the concomitant benign disease, whereas hemi- or total thyroidectomy was performed in the patients with known cancer. Four of 5 patients with stage pT4 cancer and all patients with nodal involvement underwent total thyroidectomy with radioiodine (n = 8 [14%]). Postoperative morbidity was 0%. During the follow-up period of 1-17 (x = 5.5) years no tumour-related death and no serious recurrence was noted. One node recurrence was removed 1 year following treatment of a stage III pT1aN1b papillary carcinoma; the patient died 4 years later accidentally without residual disease. These results confirm that cases with a potentially favourable course can be defined and treated selectively by less radical measures. Small carcinomas (< or = 1.5 cm) belong to these favourable tumours with a cancer mortality rate of virtually 0%, and the aim of treatment is to prevent curable recurrences: node positivity is an important risk factor, and therefore radioiodine is reserved for carcinomas with nodal involvement and also for the occasional small pT4-tumour.

Adenocarcinoma, Follicular

[Primary hyperthyroidism 1996].

55 prospectively documented patients aged 20-84 (median 67) years (47 women, 8 males) underwent surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). The most frequent symptoms and associated conditions were nephrolithiasis (42%) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (39%). Only one case of asymptomatic and one case of "normocalcemic" pHPT were found in this series. 47 patients (89%) were cured following initial neck exploration, and 3 further patients (6%) were cured by a second operation. Reoperation also led to cure in 2 patients operated on elsewhere in the first instance. 6 patients (11%) had double adenoma (bilaterally) and 36% of the adenomas had an ectopic location, with an intrathyroidal adenoma in 2 cases. In 2 patients sternotomy was carried out. Persistent pHPT was observed in 3 patients (following initial exploration in 2 cases and reoperation in one). These patients had a supernumerary adenomatous gland with ectopic location in 2 cases and a double adenoma with ectopic position of one adenoma in a further case. One 80-year-old patient died post-operatively from intestinal ischemia. 2 patients had permanent postoperative hypoparathyroidism; in no case was a permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy observed. Bilateral parathyroid exploration with thyroid mobilization by capsular dissection is the procedure of choice for pHPT. In 2 patients with the MEN 2A-syndrome and with medullary thyroid carcinoma thyroidectomy, lymphadenectomy and autotransplantation of normal parathyroids to the arm was performed, with normal parathyroid function in both cases.

Adenoma