Endoscopic Thyroid Surgery
For patients with thyroid cancer or benign (noncancerous) thyroid tumors who need surgery, MD Anderson offers traditional thyroid surgery with an open incision in the neck or, in carefully selected cases, robotic thyroidectomy or minimally invasive thyroid surgery. Your treatment team at MD Anderson will help you decide which is best for you.
Our surgeons pioneered the use of video-assisted thyroid surgery at MD Anderson. They also were the first in North America to perform robotic thyroidectomy and have led its development in the United States. These methods magnify the view of the operative field, increasing the surgical precision and reducing the risk of complications.
Video-assisted Thyroidectomy
Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) uses an incision in the neck that is less than 1 inch long to reach the thyroid glands. This is smaller than the incision with conventional thyroid surgery. A tiny scope is used to project the operative field onto a computer screen at 10-times original magnification, improving the surgeon’s view during the surgery.
