Robotic lateral neck node dissection for the thyroid cancer via the transaxillary approach

Abstract

Since the era of Crile, the conventional open neck dissection had been the gold standard of surgery for the management of lateral neck nodes metastasis (Crile 1905). Hereafter, many head and neck surgeons have made some modifications of this original technique, and the extent of surgical dissection has been diminished for the less surgical morbidity within the same oncologic safety (Martin et al. 1951; Jesse et al. 1978). In recent years, profound comprehensions of the pathophysiology in head and neck cancers and intensive treatment experiences have drawn the alternative surgical options for the cervical lymph node metastasis, such as selective or hyperselective neck dissection in accordance with the primary tumor biology (Lim et al. 2006, 2009; Caron and Clark 2005).