**6. Evaluation of the technique**

#### **6.1. Study description**

In order to evaluate the feasibility of the technique, we conducted a prospective study which was carried out in Clinic of Surgery I, Emergency Clinical County Hospital Târgu Mureș from January 01, 2013 to June 01, 2017. The study enrolled 100 consecutive patients divided into two lots: 50 who underwent total complete thyroidectomy using LigaSure™ small jaw, including 10 with "monobloc resection" and 50 in whom total thyroidectomy was performed by conventional procedure (by using ligatures). The two groups were compared using statistical analysis following the next parameters: the thyroid pathology, operative time, hospitalization days, analgesia used and immediate postoperative complications. Statistical analysis was performed employing Student's test for comparison of the continuous variables. Differences between nonparametrical variables were compared using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Descriptive data were reported as the mean ± SD. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

All patients have been prior diagnosed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy showing either papillary or follicular cancer.

All patients had preoperative and postoperative endocrinological consultations, and all the female patients had gynecological examination prior to the surgery.
