Anesthetic Techniques for Type-1 (Medialization) Thyroplasty: A Scoping Review

Objective: To explore different anesthesia techniques for medialization thyroplasty and determine how these anesthesia techniques may influence patient safety, patient experience, and surgical outcomes during medialization thyroplasty in adult patients.

Data sources: A comprehensive librarian-designed strategy was used to search EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Web of Science for English language studies from database inception to July 2023. The study was registered on Open Science Framework (10.17605/OSF.IO/R3BV2).

Review methods: Study selection was independently performed by two investigators for all English language studies of adult patients investigating anesthetic techniques for medialization thyroplasty with a minimum of five patients. Surgical outcomes (voice, perioperative complications, and swallowing), healthcare resource utilization metrics (operating time, length of stay), and patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) were analyzed. Study quality was assessed with the Oxford Levels of Evidence tool.

Results: From 354 articles, 28 studies were included. The most common anesthetic techniques were combined procedural sedation and local anesthesia (13/28 [46%]), local anesthesia alone (8/28 [29%]), and general anesthesia (GA) (7/28 [25%]). Six studies (21%) reported intraoperative complications (eg, desaturation), and eight (29%) studies reported postoperative complications (eg, airway obstruction). Voice outcomes were assessed in 14 (50%) studies. PROMs, including Voice Handicap Index (3/28 [11%]), were less commonly assessed. Intraoperative fiber-optic visualization was utilized in eight (29%) studies. Only one study assessed swallowing. Only two studies compared outcomes between anesthetic techniques. The median Oxford Level of Evidence was 4.

Conclusion: Medialization thyroplasty is performed under local anesthetic alone, with combined procedural sedation, and local anesthetic or with GA, with diverse approaches to airway management and minimal perioperative complications. Future research using standardized outcome measures is warranted due to the current paucity in the literature.