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Postoperative laryngoscopy in thyroid surgery: proper timing to detect recurrent laryngeal nerve injury

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Abstract

Background

There is currently a lack of consensus to support the proper timing for postoperative laryngoscopy that is reliable to diagnose recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (RLNP) after thyroid surgery. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different time intervals of fiber-optic nasolaryngoscopy (FNL) on the diagnosis of RLNP.

Method

FNL was performed postoperatively at day 0 (T1), at second day post-op (T2), and +2 weeks (T3). For patients with RLNP, repeated examinations were performed at +2 (T4), +6 (T5), and +12 months (T6).

Results

Four hundred thirty-four patients appear for postoperative FNL, providing 825 nerves at risk. Permanent RLNP occurred in 0.7%, temporary RLNP in 6.7%. RLNP rate was 6.4% at T1, 6.7% at T2, 4.8% at T3, 2.5% at T4, 0.8% at T5, and 0.7% at T6. Full recovery of vocal cord function was confirmed after rehabilitation in 87.5% of cases at T5 and 89% in T6. T2 was significantly superior to T3 in terms of diagnosis of RLNP (P < 0.05). Of patients at T2, 10.7% did not see any reason to FNL because of their normal voice register.

Conclusion

FNL is essential for the detection of vocal cord paralysis after thyroidectomy. We report different time evaluation criteria of vocal cord motility with great and significant variability of results. Second day post-op inspection of the larynx (T2) is suggested. Symptomatic voice assessment is insufficient.

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Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Authors' contributions

GD, PC, and RD have made substantial contributions to acquisition of data; FR and LB contributed to study conception and design; GD contributed to analysis and interpretation of data; LB and RD contributed to drafting of manuscript; and RD contributed to critical revision and supervision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Endocrine Surgery Research Center, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Insubria (Varese-Como), Via Guicciardini 21100, Varese, Italy

    Gianlorenzo Dionigi, Luigi Boni, Francesca Rovera, Stefano Rausei, Paolo Castelnuovo & Renzo Dionigi

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  1. Gianlorenzo Dionigi
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  2. Luigi Boni
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  3. Francesca Rovera
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  4. Stefano Rausei
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  5. Paolo Castelnuovo
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  6. Renzo Dionigi
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Correspondence to Gianlorenzo Dionigi.

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Dionigi, G., Boni, L., Rovera, F. et al. Postoperative laryngoscopy in thyroid surgery: proper timing to detect recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. Langenbecks Arch Surg 395, 327–331 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-009-0581-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-009-0581-x

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