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Thyroid Surgery Guided by Intraoperative Neuromonitoring

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Surgery of the Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands

Abstract

From its humble beginnings 150 years ago, thyroid surgery not only endeavored to resect thyroid disease but at the same time strove to preserve those structures adjacent to the thyroid gland that are of utmost importance physiologically and for maintenance of quality of life: recurrent laryngeal nerves (RLN) and parathyroid glands. Postoperative RLN palsy and postoperative hypoparathyroidism, more than recurrence of thyroid disease, were to become key performance indicators of the quality of thyroid surgery.

For decades, the chief controversy in thyroid surgery in general and for RLN management in particular revolved around preservation of the nerve through visual identification. This is not surprising given the nerve’s unique vulnerability and anatomic course which closely approximates the line of resection during thyroidectomy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General, Visceral and Vascular Surgery, Medical Faculty, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Ernst-Grube-Str. 40, Halle/Saale, D-06097, Germany

    Henning Dralle M.D., Kerstin Lorenz M.D. & Andreas Machens M.D.

  2. Surgical Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Gregory W. Randolph M.D.

Authors
  1. Henning Dralle M.D.
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  2. Gregory W. Randolph M.D.
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  3. Kerstin Lorenz M.D.
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  4. Andreas Machens M.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henning Dralle M.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chairman, Department of Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Spitalstr. 21, Basel, 4031, Switzerland

    Daniel Oertli

  2. Yale-New Haven Hospital, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, Cedar Street 330FMB 102, New Haven, CT, 06520-8062, USA

    Robert Udelsman

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Dralle, H., Randolph, G.W., Lorenz, K., Machens, A. (2012). Thyroid Surgery Guided by Intraoperative Neuromonitoring. In: Oertli, D., Udelsman, R. (eds) Surgery of the Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23459-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23459-0_13

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23459-0

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