Comparative study on the effect of different approachs for preventing injury of recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroidectomy.

Objective To explore the approaches to prevent injury of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) in thyroidectomy. Methods The clinical data of 430 patients (the study group) with exposing RLN to prevent RLN damage in thyroidectomy from August 2008 to June 2011 was retrospectively analyzed, and compared with that of 400 patients (the control group) with traditional methods to prevent RLN damage during the same period. The incidences of RLN injury were compared between the two groups. Results There were no permanent RLN injury (0 case, 0.0%) and five cases (1.2%) with transient RLN injury in the study group. There are six cases (1.5%) with permanent RLN injury and seven cases (1.8%) with transient RLN injury in the control group. The ratio of permanent RLN injury showed statistically significant difference between the two groups (P0.001). However, the ratio of transient RLN injury showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P=0.426). Conclusion It is a reliable method to apply exposing RLN to prevent RLNs from injury in Thyroidectomy.