Remote-access robotic thyroidectomy: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Recently, robotic surgery has been introduced as a new surgical approach to the thyroid. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this systematic review is to critically examine safety and feasibility of the different robotic approaches. METHODS: The literature on robotic thyroidectomy was systematically reviewed. Primary endpoints were surgery duration, length of hospital stay, complications, postoperative pain and cosmetic satisfaction. RESULTS: Sixty-eight studies with a total of 14433 patients were included. Depending on the robotic approach used, operative duration ranged between 89 and 230 min and hospitalisation stay between 0.1 and 5.6 days. Complication rates varied between 7.3% and 29%. Postoperative pain visual analogue scores (VAS) ranged from 0.6 to 4.71. CONCLUSION: Robotic thyroidectomy results in high cosmetic satisfaction and quality of life. No differences in complication rates between robotic and traditional approaches are observed, supporting safety and feasibility of these robotic techniques.