Anatomical Variations of Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (Rin) as Seen in Thyroid Surgery

Abstract

This is a prospective study of 50 consecutive cases in which Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (RLN) was explored during various operations on thyroid gland. Ninety percent of the patients were female. Their age ranged from 17 to 60 years with the average age of 38.5 years. Thirty two patients (64%) had Multinodular Goitre (MNG) and 18 patients (36%) had solitary thyroid nodule. Right subtotal lobectomy and isthmetomy was carried out on 21 patients (42%) while 11 patients (22%) underwent left subtotal lobectomy and isthmetomy. Eighteen patients (36%) had subtotal thyroidectomy. A total of 68 nerves were explored. They showed varied pattern of extralaryngeal branches. None of the patients had any iatrogenic injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Routine exploration of the recurrent laryngeal nerve is recommended.