Risk Factors for Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis of Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Study

Table 3

Univariate analysis of clinicopathological factors predictive of central/lateral lymph node metastasis (CLNM/LLNM).

Parameters	Total	CLNM (-)	CLNM (+)		LLNM (-)	LLNM (+)
Gender
Male	189	111 (58.7%)	78 (41.3%)	<0.001	180 (95.2%)	9 (4.8%)	0.372
Female	596	445 (74.7%)	151 (25.3%)		576 (96.6%)	20 (3.4%)
Age
<55	653	450 (68.9%)	203 (31.1%)	0.009	626 (95.9%)	27 (4.1%)	0.205
≥55	132	106 (80.3%)	26 (19.7%)		130 (98.5%)	2 (1.5%)
Tumor size
≤5 mm	417	338 (81.1%)	79 (18.9%)	<0.001	413 (99.0%)	4 (1.0%)	<0.001
>5 mm	368	218 (59.2%)	150 (40.8%)		343 (93.2%)	25 (6.8%)
Extrathyroidal extension
No	736	534 (72.6%)	202 (27.4%)	<0.001	714 (97.0%)	22 (3.0%)	<0.001
Yes	49	22 (44.9%)	27 (55.1%)		42 (85.7%)	7 (14.3%)
Multifocality
Unifocal	559	409 (73.2%)	150 (26.8%)	0.023	546 (97.7%)	13 (2.3%)	0.001
Multifocal	226	147 (65.0%)	79 (35.0%)		210 (92.9%)	16 (7.1%)
Bilaterality
Unilateral	645	468 (72.6%)	177 (27.4%)	0.022	627 (97.2%)	18 (2.8%)	0.004
Bilateral	140	88 (62.9%)	52 (37.1%)		129 (92.1%)	11 (7.9%)
Complicated with lymphocytic thyroiditis
No	664	469 (70.6%)	195 (29.4%)	0.778	636 (95.8%)	28 (4.2%)	0.070
Yes	121	87 (71.9%)	34 (28.1%)		120 (99.2%)	1 (0.8%)

CLNM: central lymph node metastasis; LLNM: lateral lymph node metastasis.