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CASE REPORT article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Surgery
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1549049
Case report: endoscopic thyroidectomy via total areola approach in a six-year-old patient with thyroid follicular adenoma
Provisionally accepted- Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Background: Endoscopic thyroidectomy (ET) has become increasingly popular globally, but its application in young children remains largely unexplored. This study reports a 6-year-old girl with a neck mass who underwent ET via total areola approach. Methods: After ultrasonographic (ACR TI-RADS 4) and cytological (TBSRTC 4) confirmation, the patient underwent endoscopic right and isthmic thyroidectomy with inferior parathyroid auto-transplantation under general anesthesia. The procedure utilized 3-mm pediatric instruments, intraoperative neuromonitoring and near-infrared auto fluorescent parathyroid monitoring. Results: The procedure achieved complete resection with 215min operative time and minimal blood loss. The pathological diagnosis was thyroid follicular adenoma. At 3month follow-up, no complications and excellent cosmetic outcomes were observed. Conclusion: ET via total areola approach proves highly suitable for young children because of its safety and cosmetic advantages. Experienced surgeons, small-size special surgical instruments and auxiliary monitoring techniques are helpful to improve the safety of pediatric ET.
Keywords: Thyroidectomy, Endoscopic surgical procedures, Areola, Child, Age Factors, Thyroid Nodule, Adenoma, Follicular
Received: 20 Dec 2024; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Ke, Li, Zhang, Wu and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kunpeng Hu, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
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