A comparison of transoral vestibular and bilateral areolar endoscopic thyroidectomy approaches for unilateral papillary thyroid microcarcinomas

Introduction: A transoral (TO) vestibular approach is a new remote access approach to avoid cutaneous scars in an endoscopic thyroidectomy (ET). And transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy (TOET) has been widely used in papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMCs).

Aim: To evaluate and compare endoscopic thyroidectomies with central neck dissection using a bilateral areolar (BA) approach and TO approach in patients with unilateral PTMCs.

Material and methods: In total, 92 papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients undergoing an endoscopic unilateral thyroidectomy with central neck dissection via a TO (n = 48) or BA (n = 44) approach were retrospectively enrolled from August 2017 to December 2018. Differences in various factors, such as clinical characteristics, surgery-related parameters, including operative complications, and hospital durations and costs, were compared.

Results: No significant between-group differences in the age and sex of the patients or the side, body mass index, total operative time, operative bleeding, superior parathyroid preservation in situ, operative complications, and postoperative day of discharge were found (all p > 0.05). The mean central neck dissection time, amount of postoperative drainage, extubation time, and inferior parathyroid preservation in situ were lower in the TO group as compared with these parameters in the BA group (all p < 0.05). The number of central lymph nodes resected and hospitalization costs were higher in the TO group as compared with those in the BA group (all p < 0.05).

Conclusions: An ET via the TO approach may be a good choice for unilateral PTMCs because of the shorter central neck dissection time, reduced postoperative drainage, better cosmetic satisfaction, and higher number of lymph nodes removed.