Contributions of the video-assisted approach to thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Background: The authors report their initial experience with partial and total thyroidectomy, and neck exploration for hyperparathyroidism using the video-assisted approach.

Patients And Methods: Between June 1999 and March 2001, 114 patients underwent a thyroid (n = 57) or parathyroid (n = 57) operation using a video-assisted cervical approach. Video-assisted neck exploration was conducted in all cases under general anaesthesia leading to a partial or total thyroidectomy, and to a selective adenoma removal in PHPT or to a subtotal parathyroid resection in SHPT.