A new anchor electrode design for continuous neuromonitoring of the recurrent laryngeal nerve by vagal nerve stimulations.

Purpose Intraoperative neuromonitoring has the limitation that the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) is still at risk for damage between two stimulations with a handheld bipolar stimulation electrode. The purpose of this study was to establish the vagal anchor electrode for real-time monitoring of the RLN in surgical routine and to be alerted to imminent nerve failure by electromyography (EMG) signal analysis whereby the nerve damage becomes reversible.