Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026

Identification and Protection of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve during Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy
Published on: October 24, 2025
Recurrent laryngeal nerve landmarks revisited
Elham Asgharpour1, Eva Maranillo, Jose Sañudo
1Department of Human Anatomy and Embriology I, Faculty of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Background:
The aim of this work was to evaluate, to prove their reliability, the different surgical landmarks previously proposed as a mean to locate the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN).
Methods:
The necks of 143 (68 male and 76 female) human adult embalmed cadavers were examined. RLN origin and length and its relationship to different landmarks were recorded and results compared with those previously reported. Statistical comparisons were performed using the chi-square test (significance, p ≤ .05).
Results:
Mostly, RLN is located anterior to the tracheoesophageal sulcus (41.6%), posterior to the inferior thyroid artery (35.8%), lateral to Berry's ligament (88.1%), below the inferior rim of the inferior constrictor muscle (90.4%), and entering the larynx before its terminal division (54.6%).
Conclusions:
The position of the RLN in relation to those structures classically considered as landmarks is highly variable. The most reliable relationships are those with Berry's ligament or the inferior constrictor muscle.
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