Professor Hoon Yub Kim: Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy shows promising results with ideal outcomes

The 15th World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery (WCES 2016) in conjunction with Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA 2016) and 15th Chinese National Congress of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery (CSLES 2016) were held successfully in Suzhou from November 9–12, 2016. During the break, Gland Surgery is honored to have an interview with Prof. Hoon Yub Kim (Figure 1) after his speech on “Mechanism of Injury of Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve and Protective Strategy”.

Figure 1 Professor Hoon Yub Kim: Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy shows promising results with ideal outcomes.

Prof. Kim is the endocrine surgeon who now serves as associate professor of surgery in Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He graduated from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, to earn his MD and later his PhD, and was trained in Seoul National University Hospital and Korea University Hospital, before joining Korea University as the full-time faculty. In this interview, Prof. Kim shared with us the latest research results he has achieved in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery. For more detail of this interview, readers can refer to the following video (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Hoon Yub Kim: Robotic surgery is too expensive for patients (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1286

Prof. Kim’s major academic interests for the research are the thyroid cancer and the related surgery, and in recent years, his research mainly focuses on the preservation of function of the laryngeal nerves with intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) during thyroid surgery and development of transoral thyroid surgery which might be referred as the Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) for thyroid gland. As the result, more than 70 articles in the various peer-reviewed journals and the five textbooks written in Korean and English language which he had authored have been published to date, and the number of the publication is rapidly increasing recently.

Interview questions

• Can you briefly introduce the mechanism of Injury of Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve during thyroid surgery? How to avoid injury effectively?
• Nowadays, more than 90% of your patients are suffering from thyroid disease, could you please briefly introduce the current situation of thyroid disease in Korea?
• In recent years, your research mainly focuses on Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, could you share with us the latest research results you have achieved in this area?
• What’s the limitation of your research?
• In your view, how to become a qualified endocrine surgeon?

Acknowledgements

None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

1. Yan CM. Professor Hoon Yub Kim: Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy shows promising results with ideal outcomes. Asvide 2016;3:511. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1286

(Science Editor: Crystal M. Yan, GS, editor@glandsurgery.org)