Stretch of the minimally invasive incision during thyroid and parathyroid surgery

Identify and quantify changes in length of the skin incision following minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery and determine whether these changes persist postoperatively.

Cohort study.

Tertiary care teaching hospital.

Between July 2012 and June 2013, a prospective, nonrandomized study was performed on 44 consecutive patients undergoing open cervical minimally invasive thyroidectomy (incision approximately 6 cm or less) or minimally invasive parathyroidectomy (incision approximately 3 cm or less). Incision length was measured following initial incision, immediately after wound closure, and on postoperative follow-up at 2-week and 14-week visits.

Thirty-one patients underwent minimally invasive thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy with initial incision lengths ranging from 20 mm to 60 mm. Seven patients (21%) underwent total thyroidectomy with a mean length of 45 ± 8 mm, 15 patients (44%) underwent unilateral thyroid lobectomy with a mean length of 37 ± 5 mm, and 9 patients (26%) underwent parathyroidectomy with a mean length of 28 ± 2 mm. On average, the skin incision lengthened by 3.0 ± 0.9 mm during surgery representing an intraoperative stretch of 8.0% (P < .0001). Incision lengths decreased by an average of 0.3 mm at 2-week postoperative follow-up (ns) and 6.3 mm at 14-week postoperative follow-up (P < .0001).

Significant intraoperative incision stretch is likely to occur during minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Postoperative follow-up data suggest that the increase in incision length is not permanent and resolves upon postoperative follow-up.