J.J. Hospital has become the first state-run hospital to perform scar-less endoscopic thyroid key-hole surgery. On July 4, the rare surgery was performed through the mouth on a 60-year-old woman from Aurangabad to remove a lump on her neck. She was discharged from the hospital on Friday.
Speaking to The Asian Age, Dr Ajay Bhandarwar, professor of surgery, JJ Hospital, said, “Thyroid gland enlargement is more common in women residing in hilly areas. In a conventional surgery, we open up the neck region to remove the diseased gland, which leaves behind a scar. This is unacceptable to many patients and it also causes discomfort. Patients get a five to seven centimetre scar on the neck apart from other post-operative symptoms like change in voice, difficulty in eating and gulping down food, and moving the neck for a few days. There is loss of blood too.”
Dr Chintan Patel, assistant professor, department of surgery, JJ Hospital, said that the patient, one Sunanda Kunde, had an unusual growth of thyroid gland. “She came to us in February with a large lump in her neck. Medicines failed to reduce it. She had thyroid enlargement for two years but avoided surgery because she did not want a scar. She requested us if we could ensure a scar-less procedure. After taking consent from her and her family, we decided to go for the endoscopic method,” he said.
Explaining the procedure, Dr Patel said that a small incision of around 0.5 centimetre was made in the mouth exactly behind the lower jaw. “Through this incision, we accessed the thyroid gland and removed the excess growth of gland which was affected. There was no scar on the neck region. Unlike open surgery, within one-and-a-half hours, Ms Kunde was talking and moving her neck normally and eating,” he said. Doctors said that they would like to do a series of such surgeries before beginning to operate on bigger thyroid tumours in future.
