PMC

Figure 1. Distribution of the size of primary thyroid tumor in 259 patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. In parentheses are the numbers of patients who underwent prophylactic node dissection.

Figure 2. Frequency of lymph node metastasis in the central (n = 259) and lateral (n = 209) compartment according to the size of primary thyroid tumor in patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. The fraction above the histogram shows the number of patients with the compartment positive for carcinoma as a fraction of the number of patients who underwent dissection of that compartment. In parentheses are the numbers of patients who underwent prophylactic node dissection.