“Transoral Endoscopic Ultrasonic Surgery is much more accessible for patients and less expensive than Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS), which has until now been the leading choice in techniques, but which has been difficult to implement in all hospitals”, explains Dr. Mario Fernandez Fernandez, of MD Anderson Cancer Center Madrid – Hospiten Head and Neck Surgery Service and the pioneer of TOUSS in Spain.
The most important applications of TOUSS are in the field of oncology, although other procedures such as esophageal stenosis, surgery for snoring or for certain benign lesions can be treated with minimally invasive ultrasound surgery. “Our aim is to consolidate TOUSS as a real alternative to robotic surgery and as an option that is accessible to any institution in a way that makes MD Anderson Madrid – Hospiten the epicenter of the technique.
Transoral Endoscopic Ultrasonic Surgery is part of the offer of services that includes the new Head and Neck Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Surgery Unit at MD Anderson Cancer Center Madrid – Hospiten. “We at the unit want to advance in the development of minimally invasive methods applied to our field. Not only the transoral methods, because there are structures that cannot be accessed by the method, as in the case of the thyroid gland, the parathyroid gland and other neck structures, in which other minimally invasive procedures would be used” states the specialist.
Minimally invasive surgery for the oncology patient
Just as chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatments have evolved to achieve greater effectiveness and lower toxicity for the cancer patient, minimally invasive surgery has been developed to limit damage to healthy tissue as much as possible. “Our area of growth follows this path. The goal is to remove tumors by focusing on the problem itself, without affecting healthy tissue, aiming for a minimum impact on the patient and cutting recovery time”, stresses Dr. Fernandez.
So, there is a particular area of application for the technique - that affecting cancer patients with tissue damage resulting from radiation therapy and for whom any type of surgery may have greater consequences. “Surgical interventions proposed at this unit are especially designed for those with head and neck tumors undergoing radiation therapy, because they do reduce the impact on previously radiated tissue and cut recovery time”, says the specialist from the Head and Neck Surgery Service at MD Anderson Madrid – Hospiten.