Impact of extent of resection for thyroid cancer invading the aerodigestive tract on surgical morbidity, local recurrence, and cancer-specific survival.

Background: The appropriate resection for thyroid cancer invading the aerodigestive tract remains controversial.

Methods: A total of 174 patients underwent resections for aerodigestive tract invasion from differentiated thyroid cancer (103 patients), medullary thyroid cancer (40 patients), and undifferentiated thyroid cancers/unusual thyroid neoplasms (31 patients). In all, 82 patients submitted to transmural resections (window resection, sleeve resection, or cervical evisceration), 65 patients underwent nontransmural resections (shaving or extramucosal esophageal resections), and 27 patients had grossly incomplete resections.