title: Comparison of the Quality of Life for Thyroid Cancer Survivors Who Had Open Versus Robotic Thyroidectomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) between conventional open and robotic total thyroidectomy in papillary thyroid carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 2011 to July 2013, 229 patients (112 robot and 117 open) were randomly selected. QoL, including overall satisfaction, cosmetic results, voice/sensory change, postoperative pain and impairment of swallowing, neck/shoulder movement, and physical/psychological activity, was recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The follow-up period was 32.3 ± 6.3 months. The satisfaction levels of the overall and cosmetic results were 8.95 ± 1.23, 8.40 ± 1.20 and 3.86 ± 0.04, 3.21 ± 0.10 for robotic and open surgery, respectively; these differences were statistically significant (P = .006, <.001). The sensory change might be more noticeable with robotic thyroidectomy (P = .064). There were no differences in the results concerning other variables among the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Robotic thyroidectomy shows comparable results to conventional open thyroidectomy in terms of the postoperative long-term QoL.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Wan Wook
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Hyang
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeeyeon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Gu
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jino
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baek
authors.affiliation: 2 Biostatistics, Medical Research Coordinating center of KNUH, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Won Kee
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Ho Yong
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000601:surgery*; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D009333:Neck / Q000503:physiopathology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011788:Quality of Life; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures; D012782:Shoulder / Q000503:physiopathology; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000209:etiology