Chyle Leakage After Right Selective Lymph Node Dissection in a Patient With Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Case Report

Abstract

Chyle leakage is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication of lateral neck lymph node dissection for metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma. Most cases of chyle leakage occur after left lateral neck node dissection; chyle leakage after right lateral neck node dissection is extremely rare because of the anatomy of the thoracic duct. We present a rare case of right selective neck node dissection (levels II-Vb) for right lateral lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma complicated by chyle leakage, which was successfully treated with thoracoscopic thoracic-duct ligation.