Direct mini-incision thyroidectomy.

We recently developed a new surgical technique for carrying out thyroidectomy, to minimize surgical invasiveness and improve the cosmetic result. Our procedure differs from conventional thyroidectomy in requiring a 3-cm skin incision and no raising of the skin flap. Since this technique decreased tissue trauma by obviating unnecessary neck exploration, hypesthesia or paresthesia in the neck and discomfort while swallowing, related to a large skin incision and raising of the skin flap, are minimized. Since thyroidectomy is performed after delivering the thyroid gland through the small skin incision, sufficient exposure for dissection of the pretracheal and paratracheal space can be obtained. Therefore, injuring the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the parathyroid gland can be avoided. Although the number of patients that we have treated in this manner is still small, we believe that our new procedure constitutes a useful surgical treatment for patients with thyroid disease.