New Advances in Thyroidectomy

  Thyroid disorders are common and prevalent in clinical practice, and are most common in women between the ages of 20 and 40. Traditional thyroid surgery leaves a 6-10 cm long “suicide” surgical scar on the front of the neck, and as people’s standard of living and aesthetic requirements continue to improve, aesthetics has become a necessary consideration for thyroid surgery, even more so in young women. The rapid development of lumpectomy instruments and techniques in recent years has provided the technical guarantee to meet this demand of patients.  The advantages of lumpectomy thyroid surgery: for example, three small incisions are made at the upper edge of the areola on both sides, which are relatively hidden, and the scars at the areola are not obvious after surgery, while the exposed neck does not leave scars, which is especially suitable for patients with scars.  1. Indications for surgery: (1) Benign thyroid tumors less than 5 cm in diameter (simple goiter, nodular goiter or with cystic hyperplasia, thyroid adenoma, etc.). Because cystic nodules can be decompressed by fluid aspiration, their diameter can exceed 5 cm; (2) hyperthyroidism below grade II enlargement; (3) benign or low-grade follicular lesions; (4) early thyroid cancer (such as low-grade malignant papillary carcinoma).  There are five common approaches for lumpectomy thyroid surgery: sternotomy approach, subclavian approach, anterior sternal approach, axillary approach and areolar approach. At present, the areola path is more commonly used in China, because the incision is not in the neck and the cosmetic effect is excellent.  3.Surgical instruments: The excellent hemostatic effect of ultrasonic knife solves the problem of bleeding and produces very little thermal damage to the nerves and parathyroid glands, which greatly shortens the operation time and improves the safety of the operation. The magnification of the lumpectomy makes the local anatomical structure very clear, and the superior laryngeal nerve, the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the parathyroid glands can be clearly revealed and few injuries occur. The incidence of postoperative vocal cord paralysis, abnormal swallowing sensation and hypocalcemia is basically the same as that of open surgery. It may even be lower than that of traditional surgery.  4. Preoperative examination: physiological preparation: monitor the basic functions of the patient (determination of blood pressure, coagulation function, liver and kidney function, blood glucose, diastasis, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, and four items before blood transfusion). Psychological preparation: communicate with the patient, let the patient understand the necessity of surgery, operation procedure and surgery risk, reduce patient anxiety.  5.Postoperative management: observe the changes of vital signs, pronunciation and swallowing; prepare tracheotomy bag; drainage tube placement for 2-3 days; discharge can be done 3-4 days after surgery; follow up.  6. Application prospects: lumpectomy thyroid surgery is a safe, feasible and clinically practical way of thyroid surgery. It not only avoids the scar left in the neck by traditional open thyroid surgery, but also has more obvious advantages over traditional surgery in terms of bleeding and postoperative pain.