Preliminary Study on the Clinical Significance and Methods of Using Carbon Nanoparticles in Endoscopic Papillary Thyroid Cancer Surgery

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to find the clinical significance and methods of using CN in endoscopic treatment for PTC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 108 cases were randomly enrolled and divided into two groups, with 50 cases in the CN injection group who were injected with CN and 58 cases in the control group with no CN injection. All cases were analyzed with the size of carcinoma, the number of lymph node, and parathyroid gland injury. RESULTS: All operations were successfully completed. The lymph node dissection number was 274 for the control group and 322 (the rate of black stained was 87%) for the CN injection group. The average number of lymph nodes in the CN injection group was 6.44 ± 2.08, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (4.72 ± 1.89). The control group had a relatively higher incidence of incidental parathyroidectomy, compared to the CN injection group (27.6% in the control group vs. 12% in the CN injection group, P=0.045). However, the incidence of hypoparathyroidism failed to show the significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Using CN in endoscopic PTC surgery could increase the detection rate of lymph nodes and reduce the injury of parathyroid glands to a certain extent.