Robotic Thyroidectomy: Past, Future, and Current Perspectives.

ABSTRACT

Through the past decades, there was a tremendous revolution in the surgical approaches for thyroidectomy. Remote access approaches (RAA) use the axillary approach, the axillary-bilateral breast approach, the bilateral axilla-breast approach, the retroauricular approach, and the transoral approach. The installation of the robotic system in surgery overcomes many limitations of the RAA. Although there are various types of robotic thyroidectomy by far, transaxillary is the commonly used approach. Moreover, the transoral approach is the most novel approach. In this article, the authors demonstrate the benefits and the constraints of each method and future directions of robotic thyroidectomy.