Background: Conventional thyroidectomy leaves an eye-catching scar in the anterior neck region. Endoscopic thyroidectomy may achieve a better esthetic effect and improve quality of life postoperatively. The aim of this study was to undertake a complete review of a large cohort of the patients undergoing gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy (GET) via anterior chest approach (ACA) with a long-term follow-up period, and evaluate the results and limits of this procedure.
Methods: Between 2003 and 2022, 1413 patients undergoing GET via ACA in our department were included. The demographic, clinicopathological characteristics, oncologic and esthetic outcomes were summarized and analyzed.
Results: The indication for surgery was papillary thyroid carcinoma in 686 (48.5%) patients and benign thyroid diseases in 727 (51.5%) patients. Among them, 802 (56.8%) patients took hemithyroidectomy, and 611 (43.2%) patients did sub-total/total thyroidectomy. Meanwhile, 598 (42.3%) ones had central neck dissection, while 88 (6.2%) lateral neck dissection. The most common complication was transient hypoparathyroidism with an incidence of 2.9%. During the follow-up period of 2 to 232 months, three patients were confirmed locoregional recurrence. Most of the patients were satisfied with the cosmetic results.
Conclusion: Gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy via anterior chest approach is a safe and feasible procedure, which could achieve excellent oncologic and esthetic outcomes.
Keywords: Cosmetic; Endoscopic thyroidectomy; Hyperthyroidism; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Thyroid neoplasm.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.