[Minimally invasive non-endoscopic thyroid resections]

The interest in the application of the minimally invasive procedures in the thyroid surgery vastly increased in recent years.

To present our experience with the application of minimally invasive nonendoscopic resections in the thyroid surgery.

145 patients with various thyroid diseases were operated on with minimally invasive open approach for the period from 1 Janyary 2003 to 30 June 2004 in our institution. Nodular thyroid pathology has dominated. All patients were females, mean age 28.5 years. An preoperative ultrasonographic assessment of thyroid volume, nodular count, size and localization was performed in all cases. The mean thyroid lobe volume was 11.2 ml the size of the removed thyroid nodules was 9 to 33mm (21 +/- 12 mm). The incision length was measured at the beginning, at the end and one week after the operation.

The extent of thyroid resection was as follows: partial thyroid resection of a lobe in 28 patients; bilateral partial thyroid resection in 16 patients; subtotal lobectomy in 35 patients; lobectomy in 50 patients; lobectomy with partial thyroid resection of the other lobe in 8 patients; subtotal thyroidectomy in 5 patients; thyroidectomy in 3 patients. The incision length at the end of operation was 3.0 +/- 0.5 cm. Mean operative time was 41.5 +/- 8.4 min. The postoperative hospital stay was 24 +/- 6 hours. Postoperative complications were not observed, except a little haematoma in one case at the beginning of the study, that did not required any additional intervention. The early and late postoperative cosmetic results we have observed, were undoubtedly better.

Our experience demonstrates that miniinvasive nonendoscopic thyroid resections represent a simple, safe and feasible surgical procedure in selected patients with small to middle-size thyroid nodules.