The current status of endoscopic thyroidectomy in Korea.
We investigate the current status of endoscopic thyroidectomy in Korea. A representative questionnaire was sent to 21 members of the Korean Association of Endocrine Surgeons who were thought to be performing endoscopic thyroidectomy. All the reply letters were collected and analyzed. The response rate was 95%. A total of 1616 cases of endoscopic thyroidectomy were performed from the year 1998 to the year 2005. The patients included 71 men and 1545 women, with a mean age of 36.17 years. The mean operation time was 124.18 minutes and overall length of hospital stay was 4.31 days. Thyroid lobectomy and nodular hyperplasia were the most common procedures and prominent pathologic findings. Axillary approach was the most popular operative approach method. Gas insufflation and skin-lifting gasless method were used in 800 cases and 816 cases, respectively. Postoperative complication rate was 14.2%. Skin paresthesia was the most common complication. Conversion rate to conventional thyroidectomy was 2.2%. Korean experiences show that endoscopic thyroidectomy is a technically safe and feasible procedure. It is considered to be an important surgical tool that can be further progressed and that also has an excellent potential in a management of thyroid neoplasm.
Department of Surgery, The Catholic University of Korea, Korea.
Ja Seong
JS
Bae
Young Up
YU
Cho
Gi Young
GY
Sung
Se Jeong
SJ
Oh
Eun Jung
EJ
Jung
Jae Bok
JB
Lee
Tae Hyun
TH
Kim
Kee-Hyun
KH
Nam
Woong Youn
WY
Chung
Jung Han
JH
Yoon
Lee Su
LS
Kim
Yong Lai
YL
Park
Jung Han
JH
Kim
Byung In
BI
Moon
Jong Riul
JR
Lee
Byoung Un
BU
Lee
Jee-Soo
JS
Kim
Jong Ho
JH
Yoon
Je Ryong
JR
Kim
Euy Young
EY
Soh
Yeo Kyu
YK
Youn
Cheong Soo
CS
Park
Jeong Soo
JS
Kim
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome