Transoral endoscopic thyroid surgery in a Korean population

BackgroundTransoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach is expected to be a safe alternative to open surgery for certain patients and has been used increasingly by several surgeons around the world for the past 2years. The purpose of this paper is to review our 2-year experience and describe in detail our preoperative considerations, patient selection, operating room settings, anesthetic considerations, surgical technique, postoperative management, and outcomes.MethodsWe reviewed the medical records of 65 consecutive patients who underwent transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy between July 2016 and May 2018 in our hospital.ResultsWe have performed 65 thyroid surgeries (54 thyroid lobectomies, 1 completion thyroidectomy, and 10 total thyroidectomies) in 64 patients. Postoperative pathology revealed papillary carcinoma in 55 patients (84.6%), follicular carcinoma in two (3.1%), hyalinizing trabecular tumor in one (1.5%), and other benign tumor in seven (10.8%). All surgical margins were negative. Two (3.1%) patients developed transient vocal cord palsy but recovered within 2 months. One (1.5%) patient with vocal cord palsy had not recovered by 3 months after surgery. Five (7.7%) patients who underwent total thyroidectomy developed transient hypocalcemia but recovered within 2 months.ConclusionAlthough transoral thyroid surgery is a relatively recent technique requiring further validation, it affords several advantages. Transoral thyroid surgery has not yet been universally accepted, but may be the best choice for thyroid surgery in the future.