Energy Based Vessel Sealing Devices in Thyroid Surgery: A Systematic Review to Clarify the Relationship with Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Injuries

Background and objectives: The principal complications associated with thyroid surgery consist in postoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsy, hypoparathyroidism, intra-operative and post-operative hemorrhage. In this paper, structured as a literature review, we describe the current knowledge and the technical improvements currently employed in the field of thyroid surgery, focusing on the contribution of energy based devices in relation with the reduction of the operating time and the odds of possible complication. Materials and methods: a relevant systematic literature search on Pubmed was carried out including works from 2004 through 2019, selecting studies providing information on the energy based devices employed in surgeries and statistic data concerning RNL (transient and permanent) injury and operative time. Results: Nineteen studies were reviewed, dealing with 4468 patients in total. The operative variables considered in this study are: employed device, number of patients, pathological conditions affecting the patients, surgical treatment, RNL injury percentage and the operating time, offering an insight on different patient conditions and their relative operative outcomes. A total of 1843 patients, accounting to the 41.2% of the total pool, underwent the traditional technique operation, while 2605 patients (58.3%) were treated employing the energy based devices techniques. Thyroidectomy performed by approaches different from traditional (for example robotic, MIVAT (Mini Invasive Video Assisted thyroidectomy)) were excluded from this study. Conclusions: The energy-based vessel sealing devices in study, represent a safe and efficient alternative to the traditional clamp-and-tie hand technique in the thyroidal surgery scenario, granting a reduction in operating time while not increasing RNL injury rates. According to this information, a preference for energy based devices techniques might be expressed, furthermore, a progressively higher usage rate for these devices is expected in the near future.