[The incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis following thyroid surgery]

We examined the histories of 789 thyroid resections for the influence of the type of disease and the kind of operative procedure on the frequency of recurrent laryngeal nerve lesions. In operations for benign goiter the amount of recurrent nerve palsy was 1.8%, in cases of recurrent symptomatic goiter it was 9.5%. In cases of total thyroidectomy for carcinoma it was 10% (7.9% when related to the number of nerves that could be damaged). By literature review and own results a dissection of the recurrent nerves usually does not seem to offer any advantages.