Clinical Treatment Efficacy of Total Thyroidectomy Combined with Radioactive Iodine on Treatment of Thyroid Cancer and Its Effect on the Quality of Life of Patients

Iran J Public Health. 2019 Aug;48(8):1461-1468.

Abstract

Background: To investigate the treatment efficacy of radioactive iodine therapy on patients after total thyroidectomy and its effect on the quality of life.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of clinical data of 120 thyroid cancer patients admitted to Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanchang University, Nanchang, China from February 2014 to February 2017 was performed. According to different treatment methods, they were divided into observation group of 62 cases and control group of 58 cases. Both groups were treated with total thyroidectomy. The control group was treated with anti-infection and prevention of complications after operation, the observation group with radioactive iodine therapy. Treatment efficacy, quality of life score, recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and postoperative survival rate were compared between the two groups.

Results: The total effective rate of treatment in the test group was 98.39%, significantly higher than 72.41% in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the fatigue score of the test group was lower, but the score in the area of emotion function and the overall health status score were higher, with a statistically significant difference (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the recurrent laryngeal nerve injury between the two groups of patients. The postoperative survival rate of the test group of patients was 96.77%, significantly higher than 86.21% of the control group.

Conclusion: The effect of radioactive iodine therapy after total thyroidectomy is remarkable, which can significantly improve the clinical treatment efficacy and postoperative quality of life of patients, worthy of clinical application.

Keywords: Quality of life; Radioactive iodine therapy; Thyroid cancer; Total thyroidectomy.