MITERA: Innovative Continuous Voice Monitoring Technique During Thyroid Surgery on a Child

n September 2017,  for the first time in Greece, the thyroid and parathyroid surgeon of MITERA Stavros Karakozis performed an innovative continuous voice monitoring technique during thyroid surgery on a child, at MITERA Hospital.. Only a handful of these surgical procedures are performed on children globally and they require great skills and experience. The procedure was extremely successful, using the latest technology available at HYGEIA Group. The young patient had a very speedy recovery, as he was discharged from MITERA the following day.

The benefit of this technique is that all the vocal cord nerves (recurrent laryngeal nerves) are monitored continuously during surgery. The movement of the vocal cords is observed via a special monitor, while a continuous audio signal is heard demonstrating that the patient’s voice is functioning properly while they are still under general anesthesia.

This technique is the development of the older neurostimulator technique, which monitors the vocal cord nerves only during some parts of the surgery. The continuous voice monitoring technique is already being performed on adults. It can offer safer outcomes even in difficult cases, such as revision thyroid surgery, radical lymph node dissection (central and lateral) in advanced thyroid cancer, and surgery on voice professionals.

As Mr. Stavros Karakozis, MITERA thyroid and parathyroid surgeon, noted, “It is the first time that this innovative technique is performed in Greece during thyroid surgery on a child and we are delighted it was extremely successful.”

In 2016, the Hellenic Endrocrine Society honored surgeon Stavros Karakozis during a Greek conference, awarding him the first prize for his scientific poster on this innovative continuous voice monitoring technique.