Video-Assisted Thyroidectomy for Selected Cases of Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma. Initial Experience in Colombia

Andrés Chala^1*, Alvaro Sanabria², Adonis Ramírez³

¹General Surgery Section, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia.
²Oncology Unit, Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
³General Surgery Section, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Universidad Surcolombiana, Neiva, Colombia.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1101158                

Abstract

Background: Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) has been proposed as an alternative procedure to get the same completeness as a conventional thyroidectomy in selected cases of differentiated thyroid cancer. It’s considered as safe as the conventional procedure. Objective: The purpose of the study was to do a retrospective evaluation in a series of patients who underwent MIVAT for thyroid nodule or thyroid cancer over a two and a half year period, in two academic centers in Colombia in terms of the completeness of the surgical resection, morbidity and short-term recurrence. Results: 45 patients underwent a MIVAT, and 20 had also a central neck dissection (CND); frozen section study was realized in 9 cases. The final pathology showed 27 patients with papillary carcinomas, and 1 patient with incidental medullary carcinoma. Post-operative complications included temporary recurrent nerve paralysis (1.1%), permanent recurrent nerve paralysis (1.1%), temporary hypocalcaemia (4.4%) and postoperative seroma (8.8%) No definitive hypoparathyroidism was found. The short term follow-up didn’t show recurrences. Conclusion: With this initial experience, we consider that this technique could be proposed as an alternative procedure to conventional surgery, including the resection of selected small thyroid carcinomas as other authors have proposed.

Keywords

Video-Assisted Thyroidectomy, Thyroid Cancer

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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