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Updated: Dec 31, 2025
Transoral Robotic Total Thyroidectomy and Bilateral Central Regional Lymph Node Dissection for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: September 15, 2023
Transoral robotic thyroidectomy versus conventional open thyroidectomy: comparative analysis of surgical outcomes
Ji Young You1, Hoon Yub Kim2, Da Won Park1
1Department of Surgery, KUMC Thyroid Center, Korea University Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Background:
Various approaches for thyroid surgery became possible with the use of robotic systems. Transoral robotic thyroidectomy (TORT) is one of the newest approaches and draws attention because of its cosmetic excellence. In this study, we compared the surgical outcomes of TORT and conventional open thyroidectomy (OT).
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed and compared the medical records of consecutive patients who underwent TORT or OT for thyroid carcinoma from March 2009 to January 2018. Propensity score matching using 10 clinico-pathologic factors was used to generate two matched cohorts, each composed of 186 patients.
Results:
The study included 372 patients who underwent TORT (n = 186) or OT (n = 186). Mean age, tumor size, and gender were not different between both groups. The two groups showed similar surgical outcomes, except for a longer operative time for TORT. There was one patient with immediate postoperative bleeding in the TORT group. The patient underwent re-operation for hemostasis with endoscopic approach. In the OT group, one patient had wound seroma, which was treated by several rounds of needle aspiration without infection. Vocal cord palsy was present in one patient in the TORT group, which was recovered in 3 months.
Conclusions:
TORT could be performed safely and had comparable surgical outcomes with OT in the selected patients. TORT may be a suitable operative alternative for patients who do not want to leave scars on the neck.
