Minimal thyroid surgery : benefits and risks

Abstract EN

Background : thyroidectomy is one of the most common surgical operation nowadays.

The conventional technique of thyroidectomy normally requires a long skin incision and wide skin flaps on the neck, with a lot of postoperative complications.

In our study minimal access thyroid surgery was introduced through a small central neck incision, and this technique may lessen surgical trauma and postoperative complications.

Aim of the work : the aim of this work is to evaluate the benefits and risks of thyroidectomy through a mini-incision.

Patients: this study was carried out on 30 patients with simple goiter who were admitted to the departments of surgery of Medical Research Institute and the main university hospital, Alexandria university.

Methods : patients were divided into two groups, Group (I) 15 patients operated upon using mini-incision thyroidectomy, and group (II) 15 patients operated upon using conventional thyroidectomy technique.

Pain, operative time, and length of the incision were evaluated.

Results : the sex distribution in both groups were 17 males (56.66%) and 13 females (43.33%) the mean age ranges from 35.73 + 12.9 years, and 36.87 + 10.8 years in both groups.

Operative time ranges from 128 + 62.4 minutes in group (I) and about 45 to 95 minutes with mean value 74.3 + 16,4 in group (II), where P (0.000) which is significant.

The length of skin incision in group (I) was 40.0 + 3.78 mm but the mean length in group (II) was 100.00 mm.

The mean VAS at the same day of the operation in group (I) and group (II) were 4.85 + 0.4 and 8.6 + 0.36 respectively.

Conclusion : mini-incision thyroidectomy is safe and feasible in selected cases, with excellent cosmetic outcome which is particularly appreciated by young patients.