Minimally Invasive Therapies for Endocrine Neck Diseases

This handy book offers a complete overview of current minimally invasive techniques for the management of endocrine diseases of the neck, reflecting how, in the past few years, the development of various ultrasound-guided procedures and endoscopic/video-assisted surgical techniques has changed the approach to thyroid and parathyroid diseases. The book opens by describing the main diagnostic tools for thyroid, parathyroid and cervical lymph nodes, focusing especially on the new technologies for tissue characterization. The different minimally invasive treatment procedures involving either a percutaneous approach (ethanol injection, laser thermal ablation, radiofrequency thermal ablation, high-intensity focused ultrasound) or minimally invasive surgery are then described in detail. The volume is intended for all clinicians and surgeons with an interest in the field of endocrinology and neck surgery. It provides a synthetic but clear description of the various available techniques from a technical point of view and discusses the main issues concerning each of them, permitting comparative evaluation in order to identify the best option in a particular case. It also reports the evidence available in the current literature.