Recent advances and considerations about robotic thyroidectomy

Abstract

Robotic thyroidectomy (RT) system combines the advantages of the surgical robot and remote access thyroidectomy, provides the benefits of excellent three-dimensional visualization, stable operative view and improved surgical dexterity, has been applied in clinical practices for 10 years and proved to have comparable surgical safety and oncological completeness with traditional open operation, and provides smaller surgical injury (psychological and physical injury) , better functional protection (including neck function, parathyroid glands and laryngeal nerve) , and significantly higher cosmetic satisfaction. There are two mostly common used RT approaches, bilateral axillobreast approach (BABA) and transaxillary approach (TAA) . Since surgeons accumulate more experience, the indications of RT have been expanded to differentiated thyroid cancer with tumor size between 2-4 cm with (or without) lateral neck lymph node metastases by far. To date, all related studies are nonrandomized or retrospective comparisons. It’s necessary to launch multi-centers randomized studies and long term follow-up to offer higher evidence to boost the future application of RT. Key words: Da Vinci Si surgical system; Thyroidectomy; Thyroid Carcinoma