Dr. Kyu Eun Lee: Special need makes robotic thyroid surgery more and more popular
The 2017 Annual Congress of International Society of Oncoplastic Endocrine Surgeons (ISOPES) was successfully held during April 20–23 in Hangzhou, China. Many renowned surgeons, abroad and at home attended this congress, presenting their personal clinical experience and sharing the state of art in endocrine surgery field.
With a pleasure and honor, the editorial office of Annals of Thyroid (AOT) got the chance to interview Dr. Kyu Eun Lee, from Seoul National University Hospital, Korea (Figure 1). Dr. Lee is an outstanding endocrine surgeon and has rich experience in robotic thyroid/parathyroid surgery. What do you think is the challenge for Dr. Lee when he did the first robotic surgery? To talk about bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) robotic thyroid surgery, are you curious about what inspired his team to develop this approach? Here we have Dr. Lee’s answers (Figure 2).
Interview questions
- Robotic thyroid surgery is more and more popular. How about it in Korea? In which case you may choose robotic surgery?
- When did you start the first robotic thyroid surgery? At that time, what was the challenge for you?
- You and your colleagues have developed BABA robotic thyroid surgery. What inspired you to try this approach? Is there any story that can be shared with us?
- What’s the limitation of BABA?
- How to develop a new surgical approach? Do you have any experience to share with us?
Expert introduction
Kyu Eun Lee, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Dr. Kyu Eun Lee is an academic endocrine surgeon and an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the Seoul National University College of Medicine. His main clinical interests are thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Dr. Lee’s expertise extends further into minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and various laparoscopic surgical techniques in adrenal surgery. He and his colleagues have developed the unique robotic approach for thyroid and parathyroid surgeries known as the BABA, which is well appreciated for its cosmetic outcomes resulting in a scarless neck. Dr. Lee continues his research interests in basic science projects focused on the molecular genetics of thyroid cancer and its role in tumorigenesis, diagnosis and prognosis, through a proactive collaboration with other experts in the field. He is also an active member in numerous national and international medical societies, including the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES), the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (IAES) and the ISOPES.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Thyroid for the series “Meet the Professor”. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/aot.2017.05.01). The series “Meet the Professor” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. The author reports that she is a full-time employee of AME Publishing Company. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- Wang M. Dr. Kyu Eun Lee: Special need makes robotic thyroid surgery more and more popular. Asvide 2017;4:
10.21037/asvide.2017.229 . Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1539
(Science Editor: Molly Wang, AOT, aot@amegroups.com)
Cite this article as: Wang M. Dr. Kyu Eun Lee: Special need makes robotic thyroid surgery more and more popular. Ann Thyroid 2017;2:1.
