A novel minimally invasive endoscopic approach of thyroid surgery—endoscopic thyroidectomy via sternocleidomastoid muscle posteroinferior approach

Since the endoscopic thyroidectomy was firstly reported by Hüscher in 1997, there has been an ongoing debate regarding whether mainstream endoscopic thyroidectomy can be classified as minimally invasive surgery. In this study, we innovatively proposed the endoscopic thyroidectomy via sternocleidomastoid muscle posteroinferior approach (ETSPIA), a novel minimally invasive surgical technique, and compared its efficacy with the well-established transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA).