Comparison Study of Endoscopic Thyroidectomy Versus Robot-assisted Thyroidectomy by a Cervico-transaxillary Approach

Park, Young Min; Lim, Woo Sung; Moon, Byung In

Abstract

PURPOSE
Endoscopic and robot-assisted thyroidectomy has shown rapid development worldwide. In addition, there is no treatment of choice for thyroidectomy as usual. We propose an endoscopic thyroidectomy using a cervico-transaxillary approach, comparing its results with those of robot-assisted thyroidectomy. We present this study in order to provide advantages and disadvantages.
METHODS
Between January 2010 and March 2012, 132 patients were recruited with clinicopathological data for this study. We divided patients into two groups, the endoscopic and the robot groups, with respect to their clinical characteristics, surgical outcomes. The outcomes were evaluated in terms of operation time, estimated blood loss, hemovac amount, hospital stay, and number of lymph nodes harvested.
RESULTS
A total of 132 patients (male 6 and female 126) were recruited with clinicopathological data for this study. Of these, 78 patients underwent endoscopic thyroidectomy (the endo group) and 54 underwent robot-assisted thyroidectomy (the robot group) using a cervico-transaxillary approach. The two groups did not differ significantly in terms of age, estimated blood loss, and complications. None of the patients experienced severe complications.
CONCLUSION
Results of the preliminary comparison in this study show that both approaches are safe and feasible, with similar results. However, a smaller hemovac amount was observed with endoscopic thyroidectomy, compared to robot-assisted thyroidectomy. In order to cut costs, part of robot-assisted thyroidectomy could be replaced by endoscopic thyroidectomy.