gms | German Medical Science

In the past decade many efforts have been undertaken to reduce surgical access trauma in thyroidectomy. Endoscopic approaches from an axillary, chest or bilateral breast approach don’t fulfil the criteria of minimal-invasive procedures. We have developed an exclusively endoscopic minimal-invasive thyroidectomy (eMIT): an endoscope is guided through a sublingually placed trocar to the thyroid gland. Two other trocars for working standard instruments (3.5 mm diameter), which are routinely used for minimal-invasive surgery, are inserted through incisions in the vestibule of the mouth. The thyroid is resected in it’s anatomical space and removed through the median access channel. On 18^th of March 2009 this interdisciplinary procedure was applied to a 53-year old man who suffered from a nodular chance of the right thyroid lobe. No postoperative complications occurred, vocal cord function was normally and the preoperative reported dysphagia has gone. The patient left the hospital two days after. With this new exclusively endoscopic minimal-invasive thyroidectomy a new door in thyroid surgery is opened.