Gasless Endoscopic Thyroidectomy by an Axillary Approach(Preliminary Report)

Tae, Kyung; Kim, Su Young; Lee, Yong Seop; Lee, Hyung Seok

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Surgical treatments for thyroid diseases require skin incisions that can result in prominent scars in the anterior neck. For a reduction in scar size or the elimination of scar in the neck, the various kinds of minimally invasive thyroidectomies were reported. In this study, we report our early experience of endoscopic thyroidectomy by the axillary approach.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Between February 2005 and October 2005, 12 patients underwent endoscopic thyroidectomy by gasless axillary approach. We assessed pathologic diagnosis, duration of operation, size of thyroid tumor and complication of our experiment of endoscopic thyroidectomy.
RESULTS
Endoscopic procedures were performed successfully in 11 cases (3 total lobectomy, 5 subtotal lobectomy and 3 lumpectomy). Conversion to conventional thyroidectomy was required in one patient because of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and tracheal laceration. Final histopathologic diagnoses were 7 cases of adenomatous hyperplasia, 4 follicular adenoma, 1 papillary carcinoma. The mean operating time was 302 minutes and it gradually became shorter.
CONCLUSION
Gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy via axillary approach may be a safe and technically feasible procedure that leads to an improved cosmetic result.