title: [Comparative study on gasless endoscopic versus conventional thyroid surgery].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficiency, feasibility and safety of gasless endoscopic thyroid surgery through compared research.
  
  
  METHODS
  From July 2001 to Oct. 2005, 83 cases that had received gasless endoscopic thyroid surgery were compared with 80 cases that had received conventional surgery and analyzed on operating time, blood loss, cosmetic effects, complications and costs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with conventional thyroid surgery, endoscopic thyroid surgery group had better cosmetic effects. There was only minimal neck wound or even no neck wound. The cost of hospitalization in the endoscopic group was higher than that in the conventional group (10,844 +/- 2373) RMB and (7585 +/- 1081) RMB respectively (t = -7.23, P < 0.001). The endoscopic group had less blood loss than the conventional group (25 +/- 21) ml and (36 +/- 23) ml respectively (t = 3.160, P < 0.01), but had longer operating time (107 +/- 30) min and(79 +/- 19) min respectively (t = -7.225, P < 0.01). However, when the surgeon had got more experiences and applied the advanced harmonic scalpel, the operative time and blood loss reduced obviously.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with conventional thyroid surgery, gasless endoscopic thyroid surgery has the major advantage that it has cosmetic effect and has small or no scar left on neck. It can be concluded that this technique was efficiency, feasibility and safety. It can offer another choice for the thyroid neoplasms patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-ming
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Geng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yi-qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yao-dong
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhi-gang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000601:surgery; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult