SUM HOSPITAL SURGE ON: INTRODUCES ENDOSCOPIC TRANSORAL THYROID TUMOUR REMOVAL

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 16: The Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University here, has conducted a path breaking surgery for removal of a tumour from the thyroid gland of a woman.

Dr. Radhamadhab Sahu, an expert in ENT and skull base surgery at the hospital, employed a new procedure recently which allowed surgeons to access and remove the thyroid and parathyroid glands through small ports inside the mucosal part of lower lip which left no visible scar on the neck. “This is for the first time that such a surgery has been conducted in Odisha through the trans oral route,” he said.

The 39-year-old woman, who had come to the hospital complaining about a swelling in her neck, was detected with a tumour in her thyroid gland which needed to be surgically removed.

“Traditionally, surgeons removed the thyroid glands by making a horizontal incision in the centre of the neck and the expanse of the scar depended on the size of the gland, the average being 4 to 6 cm long,” Dr. Sahu said.
The other endoscopic extra cervical approaches to remove thyroid gland include trans axillary, post auricular and areolar approaches. But all these approaches involved a scar and required a very long route to reach the thyroid gland. The present method, which is known as Trans Oral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy (TET), is the only true scar less procedure based on the principle of Natural Orifice Translumenal Surgery (NOTES). It gives a direct access to thyroid gland and covers minimum distance to reach the thyroid with least complication rate, Dr. Sahu said.

In this procedure, three ports of 1 cm and 0.5 cm size are made on the inside of the lower lip through which the surgeon is able to place endoscopic instruments between the jaw and skin to open up the working space needed to remove the gland which is a short distance from the incision site, he said adding the two-hour long procedure is conducted under general anesthesia.

TET is a feasible procedure which could be the final frontier in endoscopic thyroid surgery. The team of doctors headed by Dr. Sahu had recently performed Endoscopic Trans Oral submandibular gland removal at IMS and SUM Hospital with excellent results and sparing the patient a big scar.