Mini-invasive video-assisted surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands: A 2011 update

• Published in: Journal of endocrinological investigation Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 473 - 480
• Main Authors: Miccoli, P., Materazzi, G., Baggiani, A., Miccoli, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-06-2011; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Endocrinology; Endoscopy; Humans; Laparoscopy; Literature reviews; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures - methods; Parathyroid; Parathyroid Glands - surgery; Parathyroidectomy; Review Article; Surgery; Thyroid; Thyroid gland; Thyroid Gland - surgery; Thyroidectomy; Time Factors; Video-Assisted Surgery - methods; thyroidectomy; video assisted; Minimally invasive; parathyroidectomy
• ISSN: 0391-4097; 1720-8386
• DOI: 10.1007/BF03346715

Thyroid surgery during the last century was characterized by a development of Kocher’s concepts: through a relentless work of surgeons from all over the world thyroidectomy reached a standard of quality in terms of overall results which was unimaginable in the first half of the XX century.The flattering data collected in the literature until the 90’s were all concordant in assuming that there would be little space for a real improvement in the quality standard of thyroid surgery. The introduction of laparoscopic surgery, though, changed very quickly the attitude of surgeons towards their operative behavior and countless new mini-invasive techniques were soon proposed for almost any field of surgery. In 1994, Gagner published the first series of laparoscopic adrenalectomies. Soon after, parathyroid adenomas seemed to offer an ideal field of application of these new surgical concepts. The first report of an endoscopic parathyroidectomy was in 1996. One year later other videoscopic procedures were described whose results seemed quite encouraging so as to push surgeons to try the same access and the same technique also for operations on thyroid. During the following decade several endoscopic or video-assisted approaches were proposed for the removal of thyroid gland. This paper aims to evaluate the results of minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery through an extensive review of the literature, in particular as far as minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy is concerned.