Influence of new technologies on thyroid surgery: state of the art.

The history of thyroid surgery starts with Billroth, Kocher and Halsted, who developed the technique for thyroidectomy between 1873 and 1910. In general, the essential objectives for thyroidectomy are conservation of the parathyroid glands, avoidance of injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, an accurate hemostasis and an excellent cosmesis. In the last 20 years, major improvements and new technologies have been proposed and applied in thyroid surgery; among these are mini-invasive thyroidectomy, new devices for achieving hemostasis and dissection, regional anesthesia and intraoperative neuro-monitoring.