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Safety and surgical outcomes of single-port trans-axillary robot-assisted thyroidectomy: Experience from a consecutive series of 300 patients

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Abstract

Since the introduction of the single-port (SP) robotic system, SP trans-axillary robot-assisted thyroidectomy (SP-TART) has been performed. We aimed to evaluate the safety and surgical outcomes of SP-TART in a consecutive series of 300 cases. We analyzed 300 patients with thyroid disease who underwent SP-TART from October 2021 to May 2023 in St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, Korea. We analyzed the patients’ clinicopathological characteristics and perioperative outcomes according to surgical extent. Of the 300 cases analyzed, 250 patients underwent less than total thyroidectomy (LTT), 31 patients underwent total thyroidectomy (TT), and 19 patients underwent TT with modified radical neck dissection (TT c mRND). The mean operative times for LTT, TT, and for TT c mRND were 69.8 ± 23.6, 104.2 ± 30.7, and 223.7 ± 72.4 min, respectively. Complications, including postoperative bleeding, transient hypoparathyroidism, and vocal cord palsy, were observed in nine, six, and six LTT, TT, and TT c mRND cases. The SP-TART method is a safe and feasible surgical option with a short operative time, good surgical outcome, and excellent cosmetic results.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Catholic Medical Center Research Foundation made in the program year of 2022.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222, Banpo-Daero, Seocho-Gu, 06591, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Solji An, Joonseon Park, Kwangsoon Kim, Ja Seong Bae & Jeong Soo Kim

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by SA and KSK The first draft of the manuscript was written by SA and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kwangsoon Kim.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea (approval No.: KC23RASI0236, Date: April 21, 2023).

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An, S., Park, J., Kim, K. et al. Safety and surgical outcomes of single-port trans-axillary robot-assisted thyroidectomy: Experience from a consecutive series of 300 patients. J Robotic Surg 18, 13 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-023-01810-9

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