Background: In recent years well-recognized scientific societies introduced guidelines for ultrasound (US) malignancy risk stratification of thyroid nodules. These guidelines categorize the risk of malignancy in relation to a combination of several US features. Based on these US image lexicons an US-based computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems were developed. Nevertheless, their clinical utility has not been evaluated in any study of surgeon-performed office US of the thyroid. Hence, the aim of this pilot study was to validate s-Detect TM mode in semi-automated US classification of thyroid lesions during surgeon-performed office US.Methods: This is a prospective study of 50 patients who underwent surgeon-performed thyroid US (basic US skills without CAD vs. with CAD vs. expert US skills without CAD) in the out-patient office as part of the preoperative workup. The real-time CAD system software using artificial intelligence (S-Detect TM for Thyroid; Samsung Medison Co.) was integrated into the RS85 US system. Primary outcome was CAD system added-value to the surgeon-performed office US evaluation. Secondary outcomes were: diagnostic accuracy of CAD system, intra and interobserver variability in the US assessment of thyroid nodules.Surgical pathology report was used to validate the pre-surgical diagnosis.Results: CAD system added-value to thyroid assessment by a surgeon with basic US skills was equal to 6% (overall accuracy of 82% for evaluation with CAD vs. 76% for evaluation without CAD system; P<0.001), and final diagnosis was different than predicted by US assessment in 3 patients (1 more true-positive and 2 more true-negative results). However, CAD system was inferior to thyroid assessment by a surgeon with expert US skills in 6 patients who had false-positive results (P<0.001). Conclusions:The sensitivity and negative predictive value of CAD system for US classification of thyroid lesions were similar as surgeon with expert US skills whereas specificity and positive predictive value were significantly inferior but markedly better than judgement of a surgeon with basic US skills alone.

The evolution of operative techniques in thyroid surgery that has taken place over the past several decades would not have been possible if not for a sui generis revolution in surgery at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The three most important events of the end of the 19th century, i.e., the introduction of anesthesia, the use of artery forceps and ligation of blood vessels, as well as prophylactic management of perioperative infections decidedly affected the improvement of therapeutic results and drastically decreased mortality rates down to an unthinkable 1% of patients operated on due to various thyroid conditions. The foundations of pathophysiology presented by Emil Theodor Kocher and standardization of surgical techniques proposed by Frank Lahey, William Halstedt or Jan Mikulicz-Radecki consolidated the position of classic thyroidectomy as the most effective method of treating thyroid gland diseases. Over the decades, the technique has undergone some minor alterations only, but the last three decades have marked a

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Utilization of modern technologies in thyroid surgery is increasing. The aim of this paper was to present the up-to-data use of modern technologies in thyroid surgery with special emphasis put on their potential influence on minimized risk of surgeryrelated morbidity and improved quality of surgery. Authors searched PubMed database using the following search terms: modern technologies AND/OR thyroid surgery AND/ OR transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy AND/OR neuromonitoring AND/OR parathyroid preservation AND/OR energybased hemostasis. Of 1678 publications identified 826 were found to be consistent with the aim of this review. The relevant papers addressed the following issues: neuromonitoring in minimization of risk of laryngeal nerves injury (62%), intraoperative iPTH monitoring in preselection of patients for early discharge or onset of substitution with calcium (21.5%), narrow-band and near infrared imaging for identification of parathyroids (5.7%), parathyroids angiography with indcyianine green for parathyroids vascularity assessment (5.5%), transoral endoscopic thyroid surgery via vestibular approach for improvement of cosmetic effects (4.1%), energy-based devices for surgical hemostasis (1.2%). Modern technologies are primarily designed to improve the safety and quality of thyroid surgery, and only then to optimize the cosmetic effects and reduce the time of surgery.