[Thyroidectomy and the recurrent laryngeal nerve]

Iatrogenic injury of the recurrent laryngeal nerve is doubtless one of the main problems in thyroid surgery. 56 consecutive patients, which have undergone surgical treatment for thyroid disease over the past two years are analysed. The recurrent laryngeal nerve is routinely exposed during thyroid surgery in order to decrease the incidence of recurrent nerve lesions. Four patients had an unilateral paralysis prior to the operation. Six patients showed a paralysis after the surgical intervention, two of whom had a carcinoma, where the nerve had to be resected. The residual four cases had only a transitory functional loss of one vocal cord which recovered within two weeks. We are convinced that the incidence of permanent nerve injury can be greatly decreased by exposure of th recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery.