Bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) endoscopic and robotic thyroid surgery

Abstract

As endoscopic thyroid surgery has been developed in late 1990s, various techniques have been introduced by many surgeons, including cervical, axillary, breast, and anterior chest approaches. The major advantage of endoscopic thyroid surgery over conventional open surgery is the cosmetic results. As BABA endoscopic thyroid surgery was developed in 2004 and published in 2007, it has been applied to various operations for thyroid diseases such as well-differentiated thyroid cancer, thyroid goiter, Graves’ disease, and reoperation for completion lobectomy. The advantages of BABA endoscopic thyroidectomy are as follows: (1) the procedures are same as conventional open thyroidectomy, (2) BABA gives symmetric view of bilateral thyroid lobes and gives an optimal visualization of major structures during the operation, (3) there is no interference between instruments because the ports are remote from each other, and as mentioned above, (4) good cosmetic results with no visible scar.