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Objective: This study compares endoscopic thyroidectomy by gasless unilateral axillary approach (ETGUA) and sternocleidomastoid leading-edge approach (SLEA) with conventional open thyroidectomy (COT) in hemithyroidectomy. The main focus is on the protection of neck muscles (sternocleidomastoid, omohyoid, sternothyroid) and the postoperative function of voice and swallowing yielded through these common approaches. Methods: A total of 302 patients who underwent hemithyroidectomy were enrolled and divided into three groups: ETGUA (n = 101), SLEA (n = 100), and COT (n = 101). Ultrasound was used to measure the thickness of bilateral neck muscles, including the sternocleidomastoid, omohyoid, and sternothyroid. The changes in thickness on the surgical side compared to the non-surgical side. Analyzed factors included muscle thickness changes, Swallowing Impairment Score (SIS), Voice Handicap Index (VHI), Scar Cosmesis Assessment and Rating (SCAR), Neck Injury Index (NII), surgery duration, drainage volume, hospitalization, and number of lymph nodes. Results: The clinical characteristics among the three groups were consistent except for differences in sex, age, and BMI. Metrics such as sternocleidomastoid muscle, NII, hypocalcemia, postoperative PTH, transient hoarseness, and number of lymph nodes showed no significant differences among the three groups. However, significant differences were found in the duration of surgery, drainage volume, hospitalization period omohyoid muscle, Sternohyoid muscle, VHI, SIS, and SCAR (all p

This paper presents a novel and efficient hybrid model combining a two-dimensional (2-D) site-specific model and a statistical model to characterize multipath fading in indoor environments. The site-specific model describes the propagation effects of interior walls and building walls. The latter model characterizcs the effect of scattering due to rough surface boundaries and/or randomly positioned scatterers such as furniture and personnel, which significantly affects small-scale fading. The hybrid model is computationally efficient since only the 2-D site-specific model is needed. In addition to accurately predicting mean field strength, the model can effectively quantify the relative mean contribution of diffused scattering with a factor r. The factor is also an effective index to quantify the cluttering strength of the propagation environment: 1) light-cluttering situation r ... 0.35 and 2) heavy-cluttering situation r ... 0.65. Some blind tests validate the effectiveness of the model. A large amount of experimental data for 2.44-GHz radio at many different sites shows that a Nakagami distribution describes the fading distribution well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]