THYROID-SURGERY AND THE RECURRENT LARYNGE AL NERVE

Iatrogenic injury of the recurrent laryngeal nerve is doubtless one of the main problems in thyroid surgery. 56 consecutive patients, which have undergone surgical treatment for thyroid disease over the past tw o years are analysed. The recurrent laryngeal nerve is routinely expos ed during thyroid surgery in order to decrease the incidence of recurr ent nerve lesions. Four patients had an unilateral paralysis prior to the operation. Six patients showed a paralysis after the surgical inte rvention, two of whom had a carcinoma, where the nerve had to be resec ted. The residual four cases had only a transitory functional loss of one vocal cord which recovered within two weeks. We are convinced that the incidence of permanent nerve injury can be greatly decreased by e xposure of th recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery.