I have been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. Recently, when I talked with my colleagues, a common feeling was that there are more and more patients with thyroid cancer. What is the reason for this? One is that the incidence of thyroid cancer may have indeed increased. 20 years ago, the environment in which we live has undergone great changes, including air, sources, food have been contaminated to varying degrees, and a variety of radioactive sources, such as cell phones and electrical appliances, have become ubiquitous, which may all be potential risk factors for thyroid cancer. The second and more likely reason is that the means of detection have become more sensitive and popular. At present, annual health checkups for workers in large and medium-sized cities in China have become very popular, and thyroid ultrasonography has been increasingly included in the scope of routine checkups, and many asymptomatic thyroid cancers have been detected. As in the case of our hospital’s employee physical examination, several thyroid cancers can be detected every year. For thyroid cancer, the only effective treatment measure is surgical removal. However, traditional thyroid surgery requires an incision of at least 4 to 6 centimeters in front of the neck, and if lymphatic metastases are detected in the lateral neck area, the incision needs to be extended laterally, sometimes all the way to the mastoid process behind the ear, in order to meet the requirements for surgical exposure. Although we will make the incision as low as possible, as short as possible, and place it in the skin fold as much as possible, it is still inevitable that scars will be left in the neck. Since thyroid cancer is most common in young women, who have a long survival period after surgery, postoperative scars can be a lifelong regret for many patients. Lumpectomy thyroid surgery solves this problem almost perfectly. The so-called lumpectomy thyroid surgery is the use of lumpectomy technique to shift the neck incision to hidden places outside the neck, including the chest, areola, armpit, behind the ear, and even inside the mouth. Unlike abdominal or thoracic organ surgery there is no natural cavity in the neck, so a cavity is first artificially created out to reveal the thyroid. Some have questioned the fact that lumpectomy thyroid surgery is not minimally invasive, but rather cosmetic. However, the surgery can be completed by using three small incisions of 0.5 to 1 cm outside the neck, and the surgical incision has been significantly reduced. The only drawback of this type of surgery is that the surgical trauma has increased, but if you consider that the psychological trauma caused by the permanent scars that are formed after the traditional surgery is undoubtedly also a kind of trauma, then the laparoscopic thyroid surgery is still very “minimally invasive. “The greater value of this procedure lies in the fact that it can be performed in a very specialized way. The added value of this procedure is that, with the maturation of the technique, it is now possible to remove lymph nodes from the lateral neck area without the need for an additional incision. In contrast, the scarring that develops after traditional surgery to clear the lateral neck region can be devastating to the appearance of the neck. Technology is advancing and surgeons are working hard. With the advancement and popularization of laparoscopic technology, laparoscopic thyroid surgery will surely replace traditional surgery. If you are unfortunate enough to have a thyroid disease, don’t worry, you can still be as beautiful after surgery.