Single-incision robot-assisted transaxillary surgery for early-stage papillary thyroid cancer.

Objectives: We describe the surgical details, results, and learning curve of a proposed technique for single-incision transaxillary robot-assisted thyroid surgery for early-stage thyroid cancer.

Methods: We performed single-incision transaxillary robot-assisted total thyroidectomy with the da Vinci surgical system in 29 patients (5 male, 24 female; median age, 45 years; age range, 19 to 69 years) with papillary thyroid cancer (cT1 NO) using our proposed technique with selected instrumentation. Preoperative ultrasound examination, fine-needle aspiration cytology, and contrast computed tomographic scanning were performed in all subjects.

Nodal metastases at level IIb during neck dissection for head and neck cancer: clinical and pathologic evaluation.

Background: Selective neck dissection as a part of an elective or therapeutic treatment of the neck is a common practice during the surgical treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. Recently, the need for routine dissection of level IIb has been discussed. The aim of this study was to verify the incidence of metastases at level IIb in patients with clinically negative necks (N0) and clinically positive necks (N+) and discuss the need for its excision.