Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT): what is the real advantage?

The evolution of video-assisted or laparoscopic surgical techniques in the last several years has changed the surgical treatment approach to many diseases, also in endocrine surgery. From July 2005 to March 2009, we treated 211 patients with minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT). The procedure was performed in accordance with Miccoli's technique using an Ultracision CS 14 (Ethicon Endosurgery) and/or Single Use Automatic Clip Applier S-90 (Autosuture). In all cases, we recorded the incidence of postoperative hypocalcaemia as a serum calcium value lower than 8 mg/dl with or without hypocalcaemic symptoms, postoperative haemorrhage or nerve palsy, mean operative time. All patients were also assessed for postoperative pain and given a visual analogue score from 0 to 10 at 1 and 24 h after surgery. We matched these results with a group of 587 patients treated during the same period with traditional thyroidectomy. The female/male ratio was 4:1; the mean age of the patients was 50.6 years. In the MIVAT group, the mean time of surgical procedure decreased by 52.4 min. We observed 16 hypocalcaemic cases with clinical symptoms (7.58%) (six of these cases were published in a previous article and were among the first 100 cases treated) and 59 cases of serologic hypocalcaemia (27.9%) (serum calcium lower than 8 mg/dl); the mean value of calcium concentration was 7.5 +/- 0.27 mg/dl. We observed six cases of monolateral nerve palsy, and after 6 months, a definitive palsy in two cases (0.9%); these two cases were in the first 25 cases treated. Comparisons with traditional thyroidectomy group showed statistically significant differences in postoperative serologic hypocalcaemia (p < 0.001), no difference in mean calcium value (p = 0.41) and no statistical difference in the incidences of nerve palsy and haemorrhage. Patients treated with MIVAT showed an improvement in incidence of postoperative hypocalcaemia, postoperative pain, postoperative stay, psychophysical recovery and cosmetic result.