title: Thyroid surgery without cut and tie: the use of Ligasure for total thyroidectomy.
abstract: Total thyroidectomy is the surgical preferred procedure for the treatment of benign and malignant disease. The purpose of this research was to evaluate total thyroidectomy operation by Ligasure in comparison with total thyroidectomy by the traditional technique that uses clamp and tie. We evaluated 256 patients. In 144 patients (56%), we used Ligasure without tie for total thyroidectomy; in the remaining 112 patients (44%), we used clamp and tie. The middle values of the variables examined were inferior (P < 0.0005) in the Ligasure group compared with the clamp and tie group. Only the middle value of operating room costs was higher in the first group than in the second, balanced by a decreased hospital stay of two days. Ligasure can be safely used for total thyroidectomy, because there is a meaningful difference in the distribution of variance between the two groups. There are decreasing risks of parathyroid gland and laryngeal nerve injury in the Ligasure group.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Transplantation and New Technology, University of Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Beniamino
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Scilletta
authors.forename: Mario P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferlito
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li Destri
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Minutolo
authors.forename: Eldo E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Frezza
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Cataldo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006488:Hemostasis, Surgical / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013536:Suture Techniques; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome