The significance of anastomosing the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the thyroidectomy / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the advantage of exposure recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) in thyroid surgery and to detect the methods of avoiding nerve damage.@*METHOD@#Two hundred and thirty thyroidectomy cases were studied from June 2003 to May 2006 retrospectively. One hundred and nine cases were operated with total lobectomies, 59 cases with lobectomies and gorge gland, 44 cases with subtotal thyroidectomy, 18 cases with total thyroidectomy. RLN were exposed during operation and vocal cord were supervised before and after surgery by laryngoscope.@*RESULT@#Two hundred and ninety-two RLNs were exposed including 156 of right and 136 of left, and 134 nerves gone along the tracheoesophageal groove and 158 deviated it. One hundred and ninety-seven (67.5%) gone under the artery and 60 up (20.5%), 24 (8.2%) through two artery branches, and the nerve branch across the artery branch were 11(3.8%). One hundred and eighty-five (63.4%) RLNs had branches into laryngeal, 107 (36.6%) RLNs had no branches. Eight cases came with hoarseness postoperatively, seven cases recovered, one improved for the other vocal cord surpassed compensation after 6 months.@*CONCLUSION@#Anastomosing the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the thyroidectomy was available and could protect RLN.