Vietnamese pioneer in thyroid laparoscopy technique

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Ngoc Luong (middle) has transferred his thyroid laparoscopy technique to domestic and foreign doctors

Luong was the only Vietnamese representative invited to a recent online international conference on minimally invasive surgery held by India. After demonstrating his technique, he delivered a speech explaining it. The technique involves making tiny incisions of 0.5 to 1cm in the armpit and chest, barely leaving scars. It can be used to treat all types of thyroid disease, such as goiter, Basedow disease and thyroid cancer and allows surgeons to operate on large bumps without having to cut any muscles.

According to Luong, patients after surgery can return to normal life sooner than they would with more invasive surgery, without the need to cover their neck. He says it is a much more time-saving and cost-effective surgical technique. For example, while a thyroid lobe cut in the Republic of Korea or Singapore takes two hours and costs about US$8,000-10,000, the Dr. Luong technique takes 20 minutes and costs just US$300-400.

More than 40 doctors from major hospitals in Turkey and Azerbaijan are directly observing the Dr. Luong technique

Luong and his colleagues have been constantly improving the technique. Since 2016, he has performed more than 5,300 thyroid laparoscopic surgeries and conducted research on other surgical techniques and improved treatment quality, contributing to raising Vietnam’s status in the international arena.

The Vietnam Records Organization (VietKings) has recognized the Dr. Luong technique as the most applied, transferred and trained at home and abroad.

More than 300 professors and doctors have come to Vietnam’s National Hospital of Endocrinology to learn about the Dr. Luong technique. To date, the technique has been transferred to many countries in the region and the world, such as Australia, Portugal, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, India, and Turkey. In addition, Luong is annually invited by many hospitals in the region and the world to perform the demonstration and deliver a speech on his technique.

In addition to the thyroid laparoscopic surgery, the hospital has also developed and perfected other surgical techniques, such as sympathetic ganglia surgery to treat hand sweating with fast surgery of three to four minutes. Other types of endocrine gland surgeries, such as endocrine tumors of the pancreas and adrenal adenomas have also been successfully used at the hospital.