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Updated: Sep 23, 2025
Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy Vestibular Approach for Thyroid Lobectomy
Published on: May 12, 2023
A comparative study of two robotic thyroidectomy procedures: transoral vestibular versus bilateral axillary-breast
Qingqing He1, Jian Zhu2, Xiaolei Li2
1Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, The 960th Hospital of the PLA Joint Logistics Support Force (Former Jinan Military General Hospital of People's Liberation Army), Jinan, China. heqingqing@yeah.net.
Objective:
To compare the surgical outcomes between the transoral-vestibular robotic thyroidectomy (TOVRT) and bilateral axillo-breast approach robotic thyroidectomy (BABART).
Methods:
A total of 99 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma but no distant metastasis were enrolled in this study from May 2020 to April 2021. Lobectomy or total thyroidectomy with central lymph node dissection were performed in all cases. All 99 patients were received an ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration biopsy prior to surgical intervention, out of which 49 patients underwent TOVRT, while rest 50 patients underwent BABART. During the procedure, intraoperative neuromonitoring system was used and all recurrent laryngeal nerves (RLNs) were preserved, additionally for TOVRT procedure, three intraoral ports or right axillary fold incision was used to allow for fine countertraction of tissue for radical oncological dissection. The clinical data including age, gender, height, weight, BMI, primary tumor size, number of central lymph node removed, central lymph node metastasis, operating time, total hospital stays, postoperative hospital stays, total postoperative drainage volume, postoperative pain score, cosmetic effect and complications were recorded and analyzed.
Results:
There were no significant differences in gender, height, weight, BMI and removed central lymph nodes between the two groups (P > 0.05). Patients accepted TOVRT were younger and had smaller primary tumor size than those who accepted BABART. The TOVRT group had a longer surgical time than the BABART group, but with smaller postoperative drainage volume and superior cosmetic effect (under visual analogue scale, VAS) (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in lymph node metastasis, hospital stay and postoperative pain score (under numerical rating scale, NRS) between the two groups (P > 0.05). Last but not least, certain peculiar complications were observed in TOVRT group: paresthesia of the lower lip and the chin (one case), surgical site infection (one case) and skin burn (one case).
Conclusion:
Transoral-vestibular robotic thyroidectomy is safe and feasible for certain patients, which could be considered an alternative approach for patients who require no scarring on their neck.
