Intraoperative localization measurement following preoperative radioiodine marking to facilitate the treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma

: Patients with differentiated carcinomas of the thyroid gland (n = 25) and patients with receptive lymph node metastases (n = 10) who had all undergone total thyroidectomy were marked with 131iodine 48 h before undergoing lymphonodectomy. The thoroughness of the resection was checked by the intraoperative use of a detector. There was a significant decrease in the postoperative areas visible on the scintigrams of a group of patients who had been operated upon without the intraoperative use of a detector. There were also fewer complications in this control group owing to a more subtle operative procedure.