[Continuous intraoperative neuromonitoring of the recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery]

Intraoperative neuromonitoring allows the evaluation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve function only at the moment of stimulation. Continuous vagal stimulation checks the complete extra- and intrathoracic course of the recurrent laryngeal nerve during all phases of preparation. The continuously running neuromonitoring is not implemented in the practice of thyroid surgery so far. A newly developed vagal probe for continuous stimulation is introduced and tested in a series of 20 thyroid resections. This advancement in probe technique for intraoperative neuromonitoring allows safe and continuous verification of the recurrent laryngeal nerve function during surgical preparation and may be beneficial in anatomically difficult situations.