ABSTRACT
Objective To study the method and effect of exposure the recurrent laryngeal nerve(RLN) in preventing the damage of RLN in thyroid surgery. Methods One thousand and ten sides total and(or) subtotal thyroidectomies were operated on 574 cases with RLN exposure in our hospital in recent 9 years. Results The RLN injury rate was 0.3% in this series.Of them, permanent RLN injury occurred in 2 cases and temporary injury in 1. Conclusions The exposure of RLN can greatly decrease the nerve injure in thyroid surgery, especially in total lobectomy. The dissection of RLN must followed the principle of RLN exposure . RLN should be dissected around the inferior thyroid artery first, if the RLN is difficult to be found,then dissecting around the thyroid cartilage, or finding the cervical vagus inside of carotid sheath to find RLN should be done.