Intraoperative Neuromonitoring in Thyroid Surgery

Abstract

Recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury is the most feared complication in thyroid surgery, resulting in a worse patients' quality of life, and is the most common cause of medical claim. Visualization of RLN before proceeding with dissection of the gland is considered the gold standard. In the last decade, intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) of RLN has progressively gained acceptance; nowadays, this method is widely spread, being routinely used in large workflow centers. IONM is helpful in the identification of RLN and allows to asses nerve functionality during and at the end of surgical procedure. In this chapter, IONM features, its advantages and limits, and its usefulness will be discussed.