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

ABSTRACT

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.