[Safety of routine exposure of recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid surgery].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the safe approach to routine exposure of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid surgery.


METHODS
A total of 1974 sides of laryngeal nerves were exposed in 1458 thyroid surgeries, which included six right side non-recurrent laryngeal nerves. Ninety seven percent (1915 sides of the laryngeal nerves) were exposed through inferior thyroid artery way. The rest were exposed through nerve entrance way (38 sides, 1.9%) or isthmus-to-tracheoesophageal groove way (21 sides, 1.1%).


RESULTS
Permanent injury of recurrent laryngeal nerves occurred in seven cases, which comprised 0.5% of the total surgeries. Transient injury of recurrent laryngeal nerves occurred in 24 cases, which comprised 1.6% of the total surgeries.


CONCLUSIONS
Routine exposure of recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid surgery is safe. The exposure should be started from the inferior thyroid artery and be ended at the nerve entrance into laryngeal.
Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Ri-Xiang
RX
Gong
Min
M
Zhang
Shu-Hua
SH
Luo
Yang
Y
Zhou
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055815:Young Adult