Original ResearchSingle-incision endoscopic thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer: A pilot study

•Single incision endoscopic thyroidectomy with gas inflation (SIET) can reduce the dissection field and acheive reduced post-operative pain.•The SIET can improve patients' cosmetic satisfaction compared with conventional trans-axillary thyroid surgery.•The SIET is a safe and acceptable procedure for papillary thyroid cancer.

BackgroundRecently, we have reported single incision endoscopic thyroidectomy using an axillary approach with gas inflation (SIET) in cases with benign thyroid tumors to reduce post-operative pain and invasiveness of the conventional endoscopic thyroidectomy. The aim of this study was to present our experiences with SIET for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).MethodsPatients who were diagnosed with histologically papillary thyroid carcinoma (≤1 cm) with single, unilateral, and intra-thyroidal lesion and without clinical lymph node metastasis were included. We analyzed clinico-pathological characteristics, surgical outcomes, and oncologic adequacy of the SIET procedure.ResultsBetween January 2011 and July 2012, a total of 75 patients underwent hemi-thyroidectomy with ipsilateral central lymph node dissection via SIET. The mean tumor size was 0.5 cm and 4.1 ± 2.43 central lymph nodes were removed. Of the patients, 98.3% were satisfied with their surgical wound post-operatively and no critical post-operative complications occurred during the study, except for one case of post-operative bleeding. There was one case of disease recurrence, which occurred in the contra-lateral cervical lymph node region 6 months after SIET. This patient underwent completion thyroidectomy with selective neck dissection.ConclusionThe SIET is a safe and acceptable procedure for PTC with a reduced dissection field, less post-operative pain, and more cosmetic satisfaction than conventional endoscopic thyroid surgery.