title: [The significance of anastomosing the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the thyroidectomy].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the advantage of exposure recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) in thyroid surgery and to detect the methods of avoiding nerve damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anastomosing the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the thyroidectomy was available and could protect RLN.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University Medicine College, Qingdao, 266003, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Pin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiangcai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Guoliang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012009:Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult