Intraoperative Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Monitoring in Head and Neck Surgeries – an Indian Perspective

Recurrent laryngeal nerve damage is one of the most common complications in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Identifying and preserving the recurrent laryngeal nerve is an important aspect of these surgeries. Intraoperative monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve is an important tool for detecting the nerve especially in revision surgeries. We present our experience using Nerve Integrity Monitoring (NIM) in thyroidectomy. A series of 81 cases where intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring was done was evaluated. We found that intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring is beneficial in tracing the path of recurrent laryngeal nerve, and hence preventing its injury.