Bacterial Colonization on Endoscopic Materials and Surgical Field Without Infections After Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy

Introduction: Our aim was to determine whether bacteria con- tamination occurred within the surgical field or on endoscopic equipment during surgery using the transoral endoscopic thyroi- dectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA). Materials and Methods: Participants were recruited from patients planned for TOETVA between May 2017 and December 2019. Bacterial samples were taken before and at the conclusion of the TOETVA procedure. The preoperative and postoperative samples were taken from the endoscopic materials and inferior oral vestib- ulum using a sterile flocked swab. Results: The study resulted in 480 samples (80 TOETVAs). No vestibular, port site, or neck infections occurred in any of the patients. Three (3.7%) out of 80 patients developed postoperative fever. Our results show different microbial communities during TOETVA. The most prevalent species detected were Streptococcus species. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the degree of contamination depended on the sampling site (inferior vestibulum > equipment) (P = 0.03). In addition, the abundance of bacteria was affected by operative time (P = 0.013). There were no significant differences observed in isolation frequencies of bacteria in malignancy (P = 0.34). Conclusions: TOETVA surgery is categorized as a “clean-con- taminated” operation. A swab identified the common colonizers of oral microbiota on the endoscopic equipment and within the surgical field.