Transoral robotic surgery for adult parapharyngeal lymphangioma:A case report

BACKGROUND Lymphangiomas are a group of benign swellings which are commonly seen in children.The most common sites of presentation is the head and neck region,less commonly seen in axilla,chest,liver,spleen,etc.The ideal modality of treatment has always been surgical excision irrespective of the site and age group.But with the advent of minimally invasive surgical techniques,it is now possible to perform excision of parapharyngeal space lesions with minimal morbidity and good clearance.CASE SUMMARY A 42-year-old male patient who presented with difficulty in swallowing and had undergone surgery twice outside,where Transcervical approach was attempted to remove the parapharyngeal mass,but failed.Magnetic resonance imaging scan demonstrated a 6 cm x 5 cm x 4 cm left parapharyngeal mass.He underwent transoral robotic surgery for the excision of the parapharyngeal lesion and had an uneventful post-operative recovery.CONCLUSION Lymphangiomas are hamartomatous swellings which are benign in nature.The symptoms of the patient with large parapharyngeal mass include dysphagia,dyspnoea and neck swelling.Clinicoradiological evaluation is of utmost importance to determine the adjacent vital structures and the approach to the tumor.With the advent of robotics in oncology,transoral robotic excision is one of the best approaches to perform such a surgery.

Spondylodiscitis, epidural abscess, and meningitis after transoral robotic surgical resection of a squamous cell carcinoma of the posterior pharyngeal wall

Transoral robotic surgery(TORS)is a minimally invasive technique for resection of tumors of the posterior pharyngeal wall.Rarely,post-TORS cervical spondylodiscitis has been reported in the literature,with high morbidity and mortality.A 64-year-old female with underlying cervical disk disease underwent TORS resection of a posterior pharyngeal wall carcinoma without reconstruction in April 2020.Roughly one month post-operatively,the patient presented with clinical and radiographic signs of spondylodiscitis,epidural abscess,and meningitis.The patient was treated with antibiotic therapy and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.The patient recovered without neurologic deficit.A three-month post-treatment PET-CT scan showed no evidence of residual disease.Post-operative cervical spondylodiscitis and meningitis are rare complications of TORS resection for posterior pharyngeal wall carcinomas,but the risk is increased in patients with underlying cervical disk disease.In such patients,perioperative antibiotic treatment and/or reconstruction should be considered to prevent neurologic complications and death.

The pros and cons of additional axillary arm for transoral robotic thyroidectomy

Background:Transoral vestibular approach thyroidectomy using robotic system has advantages with articulating instrumentation.Transoral robotic thyroidectomy(TORT)can be done either using just two robot arms for instruments and an extra one for the endoscopic camera,or using three robot arms for instruments(third arm through axila)and an additional arm for the camera.Pros of additional axillary arm for TORT:The 4th arm through an additional axillary port is mainly responsible for a counter-traction of strap muscles and thyroid tissue.The additional axillary port tract is also an excellent passage for the specimen removal with lower risk of disruption or fragmentation.Ultimately,these merits from the additional axillary arm allows TORT to be performed safely in a wide range of patient groups.Cons of additional axillary arm for TORT:One of the issue with the additional axillary arm in TORT is that it leaves a cutaneous scar.Another issue to consider is the cost.In some places,robotic surgery operation fee varies with the number of arms used during the operation.Retraction of strap muscles through subcutaneous stitches applied after establishing the working space may make up for the lack of counter-traction.Conclusion:TORT can be done safely with or without the transaxillary arm and surgeon may consider pros and cons based on multiple factors.

Safe surgical zone during TORS radical tonsillectomy:An anatomical and radiological study

Objective:Parapharyngeal space contains intricate vascular anatomy(external and internal carotid arteries)that might be inadvertently injured during the dissection in this plane.None of the bony landmarks can be used during the transoral robotic surgery(TORS)radical tonsillectomy as these landmarks lie lateral to the internal carotid artery(ICA)and external carotid artery(ECA)in transoral approach.Our study aims to identify the safe surgical limits during the dissection of parapharyneal space in TORS radical tonsillectomy and to correlate the same with radiological study.Material and methods:Fifteen cadavers(30 head and neck regions)and 50 CT-Angiogram of neck(100 head and neck regions)were included in the anatomical and radiological study respectively.The vertical midpoint of anterior tonsillar pillar(palatoglossus muscle)was taken as the reference point and all the measurements were done at the level of reference point both for anatomical and radiological study.Distance between tonsillar fossa and ECA,distance between tonsillar fossa and ICA,relation between ECA and styloglossus and relation between ICA and stylopharyngeus at reference level were studied.Results:The mean distance of ECA from the tonsillar fossa at the reference point was 18.2 mm in the anatomical study and 16.2 mm in the radiological study.The mean distance of ICA from the tonsillar fossa was 23.4 mm and 23.3 mm in the anatomical study and radiological study.There was no significant difference between the anatomical and radiological findings for both the mean distance between ECA and ICA to the tonsillar fossa(p value was 0.45 and 0.30 respectively).ECA was located posterolateral to styloglossus in 24 cases(80.0%)and 79 cases(79.0%)in the anatomical and radiological study respectively.ICA was found posterolateral to stylopharyngeus in 21 cases(70.0%)and 69 cases(69.0%)in the anatomical and radiological study respectively.Conclusion:The muscular plane between styloglossus and stylopharyngeus can be used as an envelope to locate the ECA and ICA that lie medial to these critical vascular structures during TORS.We propose to divide the parapharyngeal space into two compartments(anterior and posterior)based on the surgical perspective of inside-out anatomy.The anterior compartment houses styloglossus muscle with ECA posterolateral to it and the posterior compartment has stylopharyngeus and ICA posterolateral to it.