A novel minimally invasive endoscopic approach of thyroid surgery-endoscopic thyroidectomy via sternocleidomastoid muscle posteroinferior approach

• Published in: Gland surgery 2024-06, Vol.13 (6), p.942-951
• Main Authors: Zhou, Jing, Jing, Yixin, Qi, Xinmeng, Wu, Jun, Huang, Junwei, Chen, Xiao, Ding, Yiming, Chen, Xiaohong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original
• ISSN: 2227-684X; 2227-8575
• DOI: 10.21037/gs-24-48

Since the endoscopic thyroidectomy was firstly reported by Hüscher in 1997, there has been an ongoing debate regarding whether mainstream endoscopic thyroidectomy can be classified as minimally invasive surgery. In this study, we innovatively proposed the endoscopic thyroidectomy via sternocleidomastoid muscle posteroinferior approach (ETSPIA), a novel minimally invasive surgical technique, and compared its efficacy with the well-established transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA). We retrospectively analyzed 50 patients who underwent ETSPIA and 50 patients who underwent TOETVA at Beijing Tongren Hospital, comparing their clinical characteristics, operative duration, blood loss, postoperative alterations in parathyroid hormone (PTH) and serum calcium, recovery post-surgery, complications, and follow-up data. The ETSPIA group had a shorter operation time compared to the TOETVA group (243.40±58.67 278.08±78.50 min; P=0.01). The ETSPIA group also had less intraoperative blood loss than the TOETVA group (20.60±10.58 33.00±11.11 mL; P