Feasibility and safety of needle‐assisted endoscopic thyroidectomy with lateral neck dissection for papillary thyroid carcinoma: a preliminary experience

Abstract Background Endoscopic thyroidectomy is popular among patients with cosmetic requirements. However, when lateral neck dissection (LND) is required, endoscopic surgery may be challenging. Therefore, we introduced needle‐assisted endoscopic technique to achieve endoscopic LND procedure and evaluated its safety and feasibility in the present study. Methods Medical records of 37 patients who underwent needle‐assisted endoscopic thyroidectomy with LND were retrospectively reviewed. Results All of 37 patients had excellent cosmetic outcomes. The mean operative time was 338.2 ± 58.74 minutes. Mean number of lymph nodes retrieved in the lateral was 33.5 ± 11.69 and 15.9 ± 7.51 in the central neck. The rates of transient and permanent hypocalcemia were 32.4% and 2.7% and the rates of transient and permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy were 8.1% and 0%, respectively. Conclusions Needle‐assisted endoscopic thyroidectomy with lateral neck dissection shows potential feasibility but further study is needed to better characterize its safety and applicability.