Right Hemithyroidectomy
TK Pandian; Roy Phitayakorn, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Hemithyroidectomy, or unilateral thyroid lobectomy, refers to removal of half the thyroid gland. The procedure is typically performed for suspicious thyroid nodules or small differentiated thyroid cancers based on biopsy via fine needle aspiration (FNA) and occasionally for symptomatic benign thyroid nodules.
At most institutions the operation can be completed safely in an outpatient fashion with patient discharge from the hospital the same day. It is typically performed via a transcervical collar incision, but endoscopic, transoral routes and remote access approach with robotic instrumentation have been described. The procedure involves mobilization of the thyroid lobe, ligation of thyroid vessels, preservation of parathyroids, protection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, and dissection away from the trachea. In this patient, a thyroid nodule was detected and found to have indeterminate features on biopsy via FNA. A hemithyroidectomy was then performed for diagnostic purposes.
Bilateral Modified Radical Neck Dissection for Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Courtney Gibson, MD, MS, FACS; Tobias Carling, MD, PhD, FACS
Yale School of Medicine
Radical neck dissection was once the standard of care for the surgical management of patients with thyroid cancer and cervical lymph node metastases. However, due to the significant morbidity of this procedure, the development of cervical lymphadenectomy procedures that could provide oncologic cure while minimizing morbidity was undertaken by many surgeons. Such an investigation has led to the development of the modified radical neck dissection (MRND). Still, many institutions are not familiar with performing a comprehensive MRND in the setting of thyroid cancer metastatic to the lateral lymph node compartments. This article presents such an operation under general anesthesia.
Robotic Thyroidectomy: A Bilateral Axillo-Breast Approach (BABA)
Hyunsuk Suh, MD
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) is a contemporary technique for remote-access thyroidectomy. BABA robotic thyroidectomy (RT) offers a number of benefits over other remote-access thyroidectomy techniques, such as provision of a three-dimensional symmetric view of bilateral thyroid lobes and optimal visualization of important anatomical landmarks, including the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), thyroidal vessels, parathyroid glands, and the trachea.
This educational video is a thorough demonstration of BABA RT performed on a young female patient diagnosed with a left-sided thyroid nodule in her early thirties. The thyroid fine needle aspiration biopsy of the 4-cm nodule was indeterminate. Additional molecular testing of the specimen had revealed one of the mutations associated with thyroid cancer. Therefore, a diagnostic thyroid lobectomy was planned. The patient had expressed a strong desire to avoid an obvious neck scar, and therefore, the BABA RT was offered.
Thyroidectomy (Cadaver)
Duke University Medical Center
Daniel J. Rocke MD, JD,
Department of Surgery
Division of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences
C. Scott Brown MD,
Department of Surgery
Division of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences
Dr. Rocke instructs a cadaver lab at Duke University to train the residents on the finer points of a standard thyroidectomy. Anatomy is better visualized with the help of overlaying illustrations during the procedure.
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