ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the feasibility and effects of endoscopic thyroidectomy(ETE) for papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC).Methods A total of 137 patients with PTC were enrolled from January 2013 to January 2016.The patients were divided into two groups depended on different surgical approaches.The patients'' characteristics,such as age,gender,pain,intraoperative blood loss,hospitalization,central lymph node metastasis etc were retrospectively analyzed in the two groups.Results In the study,78 patients performed ETE,and 58 performed COT.There was one case converted to open surgery from ETE due to intraoperative bleeding.The clinicopathological characteristics and operative complications between the two groups had no significant differences,such as gender,time of drainage,postoperative hospitalized days,positive lymph node metastasis,injury of recurrent laryngeal nerve,permanent injury of parathyroid glands.The age of patients was younger in ETE(t=-4.299,P=0.000).The drainage content(t=9.539,P=0.000),intraoperative blood loss(t=2.862,P=0.005) and subcutaneous ecchymosis (χ2=13.482,P=0.000) were found more in the ETE.ETE required a longer operative time(t=8.162,P=0.000).However,ETE provided better cosmetic outcomes than COT [(9.4±0.5)points vs.(5.4±1.0)points,t=30.142,P=0.000].No clinical recurrence and metastasis occurred for at least one-year follow-up.Conclusion With excellent cosmetic results,ETE is a feasible and safe operation for patients with PTC without metastasis to lateral cervical lymph nodes.