Endolaryngeal devices for perioperative identification and functional testing of the recurrent nerve.

It has previously been shown that identification of the recurrent laryngeal nerves reduces the risk of injury to the nerves during thyroid surgery. To facilitate identification and to test the conductivity of the recurrent nerves we have used electrical stimulation of the nerves and simultaneous recording of the vocal cord movements with two different endolaryngeal devices. The experience gained with these devices indicates that it is possible to reduce the frequency of injury to the nerves, and the method accelerates the progress of the operation, especially in cancer surgery and repeat operations.