A Novel Technique for Endoscopic Transaxillary Thyroidectomy Comparison

A Novel Technique for Endoscopic Transaxillary Thyroidectomy: a Preliminary Report and Comparison With the Open Procedure

The clinical data from all except the first 20 cases who underwent our novel transaxillary thyroidectomy were collected retrospectively, while the data from patients who underwent conventional open thyroid lobectomy by same surgeon during the same period were used as a control.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. The patients with benign or malignant thyroid disease require lobe thyroidectomy;
2. The patient had cosmetic requirements and agreed with transaxillary thyroidectomy;
3. Benign lesions with the largest diameter ≤5 cm;
4. Differentiated thyroid cancer(DTC) meets the following conditions at the same time: ①The maximum diameter of the primary lesion is <2.5 cm; ②There is no extraglandular invasion or only minimal external invasion of the anterior thyroid capsule or minor invasion of the sternum thyroid muscle;

Exclusion Criteria:

1. the patients had poor compliance and could not be reexamined regularly;
2. There was a history of neck or thyroid surgery;
3. The patients require total thyroidectomy or lateral neck dissection.