Residual tumor and central lymph node metastasis after thermal ablation of papillary thyroid carcinoma: A case report and review of literature

Table 1 Characteristics of selected studies

Technique	Ref.	No. of patients/tumors	Follow-up periods/mo, mean ± SD (range)	Follow-up examinations	No. of incomplete ablation	No. of recurrence/mo, post-TA	No. of cervical lymph node metastasis/mo, post-TA
RFA	Zhang et al[1], 2016	92/98	7.8 ± 2.9 (3-18)	US, CEUS, and CNB	0	0	0
RFA	Kim et al[19], 2017	6/6	48.5 ± 12.3 (36-65)	FNA and CNB	0	0	0
RFA	Luo et al[20], 2017	421/440	N/A (12-36)	US, CEUS and biopsy	0	4 proven; 5 suspicious (N/A)	4 (N/A)
RFA	Jeong et al[21], 2018	6/7	19.3 ± 3.5 (15-24)	US and CT	1	0	0
RFA	Zhang et al[22], 2019	60/60	N/A (18-60)	US, CEUS, and CNB	0	0	0
RFA	Ding et al[23], 2019	37/38	N/A (1-18)	CEUS and CT	0	0	0
RFA	Lim et al[2], 2019	133/152	39 ± 25 (6-104)	US, CT, and biopsy	0	0	0
RFA1	Zhang et al[24], 2020	94/94	64.2 ± 2.8 (median ± SD)	US, CEUS, CNB, CT, PET, and bone scan	0	1 (N/A)	0
LA	Zhou et al[25], 2017	30/30	13.2 (12–24)	US, CEUS, chest X-ray or CT, and FNA	1	0	0
LA	Zhang et al[26], 2018	64/64	25.7 ± 8.2 (12-42)	US, CEUS, and FNA	2	0	1 (30)
LA	Ji et al[27], 2019	37/37	16.5 ± 6.9 (12-24)	US, CEUS, and chest radiographs or CT	8	0	1 (24)
LA1	Zhou et al[28], 2019	36/36	49.2 ± 4.5 (30-54)	US, chest X-ray or CT, and FNA	0	1 (42)	1 (30)
MWA	Yue et al[5], 2014	21/21	11 (3-22)	US, chest X-ray or CT, and biopsy	0	0	0
MWA1	Li et al[29], 2018	46/46	42	US, CEUS, and biopsy	0	0	0
MWA	Teng et al[6], 2018	15/21	N/A (36-48)	US, CT, and FNA	0	0	0
MWA	Teng et al[30], 2019	185/206	20.7 ± 8.8 (12-36)	US and FNA	0	1 (1)	0
MWA1	Li et al[31], 2019	168/168	25.1 ± 17.3 (2-60)	US and FNA	0	2 (36-44)	5 (6-44)
MWA	Yue et al[32], 2020	119/119	37.2 ± 20.9 (12-101)	US, CEUS, CNB, and CT	0	0	1 (26)

¹Randomized controlled trials. CEUS: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound; CNB: Core-needle biopsy; CT: Computed tomography; FNA: Fine-needle aspiration; LA: Laser ablation; MWA: Microwave ablation; N/A: Not available; PET: Positron emission tomography; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; SD: Standard deviation; TA: Thermal ablation; US: Ultrasound.