Comparison of postoperative voice outcomes after postauricular facelift robotic hemithyroidectomy and conventional transcervical hemithyroidectomy.

[BACKGROUND] The purpose of this study was to determine whether postauricular robotic and conventional hemithyroidectomy result in significantly different voice outcomes.

[METHODS] We prospectively compared the voice handicap index (VHI)-10 and acoustic parameters of a postauricular facelift robotic group and a conventional group preoperatively, 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months after surgery.

[RESULTS] Forty-two patients in the postauricular group and 68 patients in the conventional group completed the VHI-10 questionnaire and acoustic analysis. The postoperative VHI-10 scores were not significantly different between the two groups. In female patients, the highest frequency was higher and the frequency range was wider in the postauricular group compared to the conventional group postoperatively until 1 month after surgery.

[CONCLUSION] Postauricular facelift robotic thyroidectomy has advantages over conventional thyroidectomy in terms of postoperative voice pitch.