Inferior laryngeal nerve : intraoperative anatomy and injuries of the nerve

Seance of wednesday 20 march 2002 (pas de sujet Principal)

Abstract

One of the risks of thyroid surgery is to injure the inferior laryngealnerve. In order to avoid this risk, the principle of dissection of thisnerve is now commonly accepted.The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of injuries of theinferior laryngeal nerve in the course of thyroid surgery, in relationwith its anatomical variations.The methodology applied to this study was a systematic intraoperativedissection of the inferior laryngeal nerve associated with a sy stematicotorhinolaryngologic preoperative and postoperative examination.This study included 1133 dissections of the inferior laryngeal nerve.It showed that the number of branches of the nerve had no influenceon the frequency of injuries, but that its pre or transvascular locationin relation to the thyroid artery increased significantly the riskof nerve injury.