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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Identification and Protection of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve during Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy
Published on: October 24, 2025
Subjective voice assessment after thyroid surgery: a prospective study of 395 patients
C Page1, Rody Zaatar, Aurelie Biet
1Anatomy Department, School of Medicine, Jules Verne University, Amiens, France. cyril.page@caramail.com
Background:
Total thyroidectomy has become a routine surgical procedure. However, postoperative complications are not rare and can lead to voice disorders.
Aim:
To study voice quality after total thyroidectomy.
Settings And Design:
Prospective study over a period of 5 years in 395 surgical patients undergoing total thyroidectomy.
Materials And Methods:
The voice quality of patients was based on systematic preoperative and postoperative laryngeal and voice examination. Voice assessment was performed by means of a voice quality questionnaire and recovery time within 12 months postoperatively. Patients who had inferior laryngeal nerve palsy were excluded from the study.
Results:
Preoperative subjective voice disorders were found in 21% of patients and 49% had voice impairment after surgery. The recovery time was less than 1 month for one-half of the patients with impaired voices and 85% of the patients had recovered their voice after 5 months. At the 1-year postoperative examination, the permanent impaired voice rate was 1.26%.
Conclusion:
Voice impairment is common after thyroidectomy but usually transient and less than 20% persist at 6 months. Patients must be informed about the risk of voice impairment after thyroid surgery. An objective voice assessment is desirable to monitor the presence and progress of voice disorders.
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