Endoscopic minimally invasive thyroidectomy: first clinical experience

Abstract

Background Since Theodor Kocher reduced the mortality rate of thyroidectomy from the 40% reported by Billroth to 0.2% in 1895, a collar incision with open removal of the thyroid gland is the standard procedure [1, 2]. In the past decade, efforts were made to reduce incision size and surgical access trauma by the use of endoscopic techniques. A first attempt was replacement of the central “Kocher incision” with lateral neck incisions and endoscopic removal of a thyroid lobe by Huscher on 8 July 1996 [3]. This lateral access was limited to removing only one lobe of the gland. The most common technique to date is the one developed by Miccoli et al. [4]. These authors reduced the incision to a size of 20 to 25 mm and operated on the thyroid by the use of video-endoscopic assistance (MIVAT). Several groups have described an access outside the frontal neck region via a chest [5–8], axillary [9], or combined axillary bilateral breast approach [10]. These accesses only moved the entry point from the frontal neck region to other regions, where they are still visible. The aforementioned minimally invasive approach and the conventional open approach do not respect anatomically given surgical planes and may therefore result in patient complaints, especially swallowing disorders after the scaring of the subcutaneous tissues. These extracervical approaches are associated with an extensive dissection in the access area and thus are maximally invasive. Therefore, we developed an exclusively endoscopic approach for thyroid resection [11] with standard instruments used for minimally invasive surgery (diameter, 3.5 mm). This endoscopic minimally invasive thyroidectomy (eMIT) technique was evaluated carefully by anatomic and cadaver dissections as well as ultrasound studies for technical realization and needs for instrument design [12]. To verify the safety and feasibility of the method, an animal trial was conducted in August 2008. Surgery was performed securely on five pigs, with very low blood loss. The postoperative behavior with special regard for feeding and pain reaction was normal until dissection. Especially, no local infection in the oral cavity or cervical spaces was noted.