Endoscopic thyroidectomy: a single institute prospective observational study in India

Background: Endoscopic thyroidectomy (ET) is now an accepted treatment for benign and certain malignant thyroid diseases. It is clearly evident that ET is mainly done to lessen pain and avoid scar in the neck. Any procedure which involves using the endoscope to remove thyroid is often collectively called “endoscopic thyroidectomy.” In this article, we would like to share our institute experience in doing ET.Methods: We did ET on 85 patients from November 2014 to October 2019 mostly by the three-port technique. Preoperative assessment was done and surgery was done on those who met the inclusion criteria. All the cases were done with the insufflation of carbon dioxide gas. Per operative events were noticed and all the patients were followed up at least for 3 to 6 months postoperatively.Results: The mean age of the patient is 38 years and the majority are females (92.94%). Out of 85 cases, one case was converted to an open method (1.18%). The average operative time to complete the procedure was 67 minutes. Most of the cases were discharged on 2nd to 3rd postoperative days. Few patients had complications like hematoma/seroma formation, paresthesia over the infraclavicular region, skin thermal injury, vascular injury, and tracheal injury.Conclusion: ET gives excellent cosmesis and lessens the post-operative pain and thus lesser hospital stay even though the extent of the dissection is more than the conventional method. It has variable complications according to the techniques adopted and the size/volume of the surgically excised thyroid gland.