Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy by vestibular approach

Abstract

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) was applied for the first time by K. Witzel in 2008, introducing the transoral endoscopic resection of the thyroid gland in human cadavers and living pigs. In 2016, A. Anuwong published the first case series using the vestibular approach in humans. We report the case of a 37-year-old female patient with a mass in the anterior aspect of the neck which appeared two months before consultation. The thyroid ultrasound reported multinodular goiter. The fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy reported hyperplastic follicular nodule in both lobes. The patient underwent transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy by vestibular approach. Operative time was 180 minutes and blood loss was 20 mL. Pain was minimal and hospital stay was 36 hours. We report our first experience with total thyroidectomy in a patient with benign thyroid nodules.