Nonrecurrent inferior laryngeal nerves and their association with a recurrent branch

Seven cases of nonrecurrent inferior laryngeal nerves have been presented from a review of 1,000 consecutive thyroidectomies over a 20 year period. In two of these seven cases, both a nonrecurrent nerve and an additional recurrent branch were present on the right side. This double nerve presentation has not been described before. Unless one is aware of this possibility, one might inadvertently injure the major nonrecurrent trunk, having identified only a small recurrent branch. We emphasize the need for a complete nerve identification technique.