Safe implementation of retroauricular robotic and endoscopic neck surgery in South America

In the last three decades, otolaryngology and head and neck oncological surgery have shown remarkable progress with the development of several modalities of endoscopic-assisted minimally invasive surgeries. More recently, the Da Vinci robotic surgery system has promoted the development of several surgical approaches with less morbidity and better cosmetic results, including the transaxillary and retroauricular approaches for thyroid surgery and neck dissections. In South America, there are several shortcomings regarding financial resources as well as the lack of support for innovation leading to a significant delay in adoption of numerous technological advances in medical practice. Despite these obstacles, we obtained training in transoral robotic surgery and neck procedures, and then decided to implement neck endoscopic and robotic surgery at our institution. We developed a collaborative training program with Yonsei University that, together with several local measures, allowed for a safe implementation. From June 2014 to December 2016, we have performed a total of 121 retroauricular neck surgeries, of which 65 were robotic-assisted and 56 were endoscopic assisted procedures, with a complication rate that seems to be comparable to conventional procedures in our experience and a smooth learning curve. Safety compliance has been continuously assessed. Aiming to develop and disseminate these techniques, we have ongoing collaborative work with Yonsei University faculty, to continue increasing our clinical experience, and we are now preparing the group and infrastructure to establish a local training program for South American surgeons. We have been presenting our results at national and international medical meetings and started to publish the preliminary results in peer reviewed medical journals. The emphasis is that a retroauricular approach is a therapeutic option to be considered, especially for young patients. Media exposure has been avoided so far. As expected, resistance by our peers is still present and much more work is needed to overcome it, including the generation of data on the outcomes and a critical analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of endoscopic and robotic neck surgery.