Transient postoperative symptoms, including pain, swelling, unnatural feelings during cervical movements, and incision adhesion formation are common in patients after open thyroidectomy, especially in those with bilateral lesions. Therefore, we proposed a new bilateral supraclavicular approach to reduce such complications, and compared it with the conventional transcervical approach to verify its safety and efficacy. Forty-four patients were recruited and randomized into either a conventional transcervical group (CT) or a bilateral supraclavicular (BS) group. Surgically-related variables, duration of postoperative symptoms, and incision adhesion formation status were recorded and evaluated. There were no statistically significance differences in sex, age, extent of surgery, pathological type, intraoperative blood loss, and operation duration between the two groups. The BS group had a slightly longer total incision length, but exhibited a significantly shorter period of postoperative symptoms (P=0.012) and lower risk for adhesion formation (P=0.035 in the 1st month, P=0.047 in the 10th month) compared to the CT group. In conclusion, the bilateral supraclavicular approach is a safe and effective method for reducing postoperative symptoms and adhesion formation in patients with bilateral thyroid lesions.
Keywords: Thyroidectomy; adhesion formation; bilateral; clinical trial; postoperative symptoms; supraclavicular.