Stretch of the minimally invasive incision during thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Objective: Identify and quantify changes in length of the skin incision following minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery and determine whether these changes persist postoperatively.

Study Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary care teaching hospital.

Subjects And Methods: Between July 2012 and June 2013, a prospective, nonrandomized study was performed on 44 consecutive patients undergoing open cervical minimally invasive thyroidectomy (incision approximately 6 cm or less) or minimally invasive parathyroidectomy (incision approximately 3 cm or less). Incision length was measured following initial incision, immediately after wound closure, and on postoperative follow-up at 2-week and 14-week visits.

Results: Thirty-one patients underwent minimally invasive thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy with initial incision lengths ranging from 20 mm to 60 mm. Seven patients (21%) underwent total thyroidectomy with a mean length of 45 ± 8 mm, 15 patients (44%) underwent unilateral thyroid lobectomy with a mean length of 37 ± 5 mm, and 9 patients (26%) underwent parathyroidectomy with a mean length of 28 ± 2 mm. On average, the skin incision lengthened by 3.0 ± 0.9 mm during surgery representing an intraoperative stretch of 8.0% (P < .0001). Incision lengths decreased by an average of 0.3 mm at 2-week postoperative follow-up (ns) and 6.3 mm at 14-week postoperative follow-up (P < .0001).

Conclusion: Significant intraoperative incision stretch is likely to occur during minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Postoperative follow-up data suggest that the increase in incision length is not permanent and resolves upon postoperative follow-up.