Endoscopic thyroid surgery today: a diversity of surgical strategies

The advancement of video-assisted minimally invasive surgery in this decade fostered the successful attempt at endoscopic thyroidectomy in 1997. This technically demanding surgery is now being evaluated in a small number of specialized centers. The procedure earned the most attention in Japan and is performed in more than 20 centers; a conference dedicated to the technique was held in Japan in 2001. By retrieving information from published or presented articles and direct personal communications, we report on the multitude of surgical strategies designed by different experts to enable relocalization of the surgical wounds to optimize cosmesis to the patient while complying with the gold standard of thyroid surgery.