About the Treatment Method
Transoral Goiter Surgery
Yes. This is its biggest revolution. All incisions and stitches remain on the back of the lower lip, between the teeth and the mucosa (inside the mouth). When looking at your neck from the outside or in front of a mirror, there is not a single spot, mark, or scratch indicating that you had surgery.
In classic open surgery, the surgeon tries to protect the nerves going to the vocal cords by seeing the thyroid with the naked eye. In the TOETVA (camera-assisted) method, the image is projected onto the screen magnified 10 times. Thanks to this, that millimetric "recurrent laryngeal nerve" going to the vocal cords looks like a giant cable, and the probability of it being damaged (hoarseness) is technologically minimized.
No. If the thyroid gland or the nodules inside it have reached massive sizes, if it descends towards the rib cage, or if there is an advanced-stage aggressive thyroid cancer; traditional open neck incision surgery is mandatory since it will not be possible (and safe) to pull these tumors out through the small hole inside the lip.
The information on this page is for general health advice. Please consult specialized physicians for personalized treatment or advice.
