Scarless Thyroid Surgery

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A doctor at Tulane University School of Medicine is the first in the U.S. to remove bad thyroid glands without leaving a scar behind. 

The new endoscopic surgery uses the latest Da Vinci three-dimensional, high-definition robotic equipment to make a two-inch incision below the armpit that allows doctors to maneuver a small camera and other instruments between muscles to access the thyroid. The surgeon then controls the robot to pull out the bad tissue back through the armpit incision without any scars.

"This is an exciting new treatment option for certain patients who need thyroid surgery but are concerned about having a visible and permanent neck scar," Emad Kandil, M.D., chief of the Endocrine Surgery Section, assistant professor of surgery and adjunct assistant professor of otolaryngology at Tulane, was quoted as saying.

“This technique safely removes the thyroid without leaving so much as a scratch on the neck," Kandil concludes.

Only a few surgeons in the United States are trained to perform the "scarless" thyroidectomy surgery, which originated in South Korea by Dr. Woong Chaung, an associate professor of surgery at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul.

SOURCE: Tulane University, November 25, 2009

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