assessment of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury due to thyroid surgery in gorgan medical centers

Introduction: thyroid surgery is one of the most common surgeries performed on the neck. there is a possibility of nerve injury and vocal cord paralysis due to the close anatomical relationship between recurrent laryngeal nerve and thyroid. considering the importance of this study, it was performed to determine nerve damage during thyroid surgery. methods: this cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on patients undergoing thyroidectomy at gorgan university of medical sciences, goelstan province, iran, from 2016-2017. after providing a list of patients, their files were obtained and the demographic data relating to the type of surgery, type of pathology, and condition of the larynx after surgery were recorded. the patients were asked for a re-examination (if necessary) and the current condition of their larynx was determined. the collected data were recorded and analyzed in spss software (version 16). results: the statistical population of this study consisted of 195 patients, among which 12.3% were male (24 cases) and 87.7% were female (171 patients). the type of surgery in 65.6% (n=128), 28.7% (n=56), and 5.6% (n=11) cases was thyroidectomy, hemithyroidectomy, and subtotal thyroidectomy, respectively. it was revealed that the most common pathology was papillary carcinoma. in terms of complications, there were two cases of laryngeal nerve injury which persisted in only one case of unilateral paralysis. the type of surgery in both cases was total thyroidectomy. conclusions: although recurrent laryngeal nerve injury is not common, in cases of total thyroidectomy greater care should be taken to preserve the nerve