Predictive factors for prolonged operative time of robotic thyroidectomy via bilateral axillo-breast approach: Analysis of 359 cases of differentiated thyroid cancer.

OBJECTIVE

This study assessed the results of robotic thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid cancer in early stage, to identify the predictive factors of operative time and complication rate.

METHODS

A patient cohort of 359 cases in total was involved in this retrospective study. The data of clinical characteristics and follow-up results were collected.

RESULTS

The cohort of patients involved was composed of 285 female patients and 74 male ones. The mean age was 34.91 ± 7.93 years old. The mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 22.43 ± 3.47. The mean tumor size was 0.75 ± 0.56 cm, and the mean gland size was 4.68 ± 0.83 cm. Among all the specimen, the ratio of tumor invasion of gland capsule was 63/296, and the ratio of chronic thyroiditis was 110/249. 75 patients underwent total thyroidectomy + central compartment node dissection (CCND). 284 patients underwent Lobectomy + CCND. The ratio of central lymph node metastasis was 144/215 (40.1%). The mean number of lymph node dissected was 5.26 ± 4.09. The mean operative time was 96.53 ± 25.69 min. 21(5.8%) patients had hoarseness after operation. 22(29.3%) patients had hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy. The inadvertent parathyroidectomy was found in 66(18.4%) cases. The surgical extent (unilateral/bilateral resection), BMI and gland size were found to have a significantly correlation with the operative time (p < 0.05) after multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSION

The surgical extent, BMI and gland size are found to be independent risk factors of prolonged operative time of robotic thyroidectomy. However, these factors are not associated with a higher complication rate.