Minimally Invasive Video-assisted Thyroidectomy in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer - A 1-year Follow-up

Background: There are few reports on the use of minimally invasive video assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) technique in the treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Materials and Methods: From January 2007 to September 2007, we treated 227 patients for benign or malignant diseases with a total thyroidectomy. We have selected 68 cases consecutively treated for thyroid carcinoma with a total thyroidectomy. The inclusion criteria considered the patients treated with conventional thyroidectomy and the patients treated with the MIVAT. Our follow-up examination wits conducted in agreement with the guidelines of the European Consensus Conference. Results: We have identified a first group of cases; group A, which stored the cases treated with the MIVAT technique. This group contained 9 males and 27 females; the median age was 49.69 +/- 9.26 years. Group B contained 6 males and 26 females treated with the conventional thyroidectomy; the median age was 44.15 +/- 11.73 years. The postoperative pain at 24 hours after the surgical procedure in A group was 1.033 +/- 0.87, whereas in B group it was 1.915 +/- 1.24 (P < 0.05). The neoplastic node diameter was 13.31 +/- 6.31 mm in group A and 16.36 +/- 8.15 mm in group B (P = us). All of the patients were treated with radioiodine. The value of thyroglobulin after 12 months in group A was 0.648 +/- 0.2 ng/mL whereas the value was 0.705 +/- 0.2 ng/mL ill group B (P = ns). Discussion: We think that MIVAT for the right cases is a safe and valid surgical procedure for differentiated thyroid cancer. This technique has a challenging learning curve, and the surgeons must be experts in conventional thyroid surgery.