Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Surgery for Thyroid Cancer

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily influenced routine medical care. In the first months of the pandemic, healthcare authorities restricted medical care to emergency procedures, postponing elective surgical activity. Conversely, screening programmes and planned examinations have been temporarily suspended or delayed. Gradually, elective surgery and clinical activities have resumed, thanks to the weakening of the pandemic, to a better organization of the healthcare systems and to the diffusion of COVID-19 vaccines. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgery for thyroid carcinoma. Particularly, we aim to investigate whether the delay in operations, screening programmes, and planned examinations for patients under follow-up after thyroid surgery have led to an increased number of aggressive tumours. To evaluate this aspect, we aim to compare the patients who had undergone thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer before the COVID-19 pandemic (from February 2019 to February 2020), during the first phase of the pandemic (from March 2020 to September 2020), and after the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (from October 2020 to October 2021).