To investigate the safety and surgical treatment effect of da Vinci robot in male thyroid surgery.

Clinical data of 276 male patients undergoing robotic thyroid surgery with bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) admitted to our hospital from Feb. 2014 to Jan. 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. They were compared with 372 male patients (open group) who had open surgery by the same team during the same time. Surgical time, the amount of fluid selitransteise after surgery, the length of hospitalization after surgery, the number of metastatic lymph node (for malignant tumor) , cosmetic effect satisfaction, injury of recurrent laryngeal nerve and decrease of parathyroid function and other related surgical complications were analyzed. SPSS 20.0 software was employed to carry out statistical analysis, the measurement data were compared with t-test, and the counting data were analyzed by χ² test.

All operations were successfully completed and on one in the robot group was converted into open surgery. Compared with the open group, surgical time of the robot group (benign: 96.78±9.67min, malignant: 143.93±15.73min) was significantly longer than that of the open group (benign: 70.40±12.49min, malignant: 112.26±15.72min) (P<0.05) , but the postoperative beauty effect of the robot group (benign: 9.62±0.33 points, malignant: 9.59±0.31 min) was better than that of the open group (benign: 5.33±0.37 points, malignant: 5.87±1.65 points) (P<0.05) . In patients with pathological malignancy, the average age of the robot group (40.89±11.45 years) was lower than that of the open group (44.84±11.88 years) (P<0.05) . There was no significant difference in the amount of fluid induced after surgery, the length of hospital stay after surgery or the number of cases with lymph node metastasis in the two groups (P>0.05) . There were 2 cases in the robot group and 5 cases in the open surgery group had recurrent metastasis in the side of the neck after surgery. None of the patients had permanent larynx reflux nerve damage or permanent parathyroid dysfunction. The average follow-up time was (25.36±16.13) months, ranging from 1 to 72 months.

Compared with traditional open surgery, da Vinci robot surgery system is safe and feasible in male thyroid surgery, with better beauty effect, and provides new options for male thyroid surgery patients with neck beauty needs.

da Vinci robot; Male; Thyroid surgery; BABA approach