Intraoperative neuromonitoring during thyroidectomy does not decrease vocal cord palsy risk, but the cumulative experience of the surgeon may.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the influence of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) on vocal cord palsy (VCP) rates and assess the temporal trends in VCP rates.

METHODS

The subjects of this retrospective study were patients who underwent thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer between March, 2014 and June, 2022, at a university hospital in Korea. We compared VCP rates between the non-IONM and IONM groups and analyzed the risk factors for VCP and VCP rates over time.

RESULTS

A total of 712 patients were included in the analysis. The rates of transient and permanent VCP did not differ significantly between the non-IONM and IONM groups. Transient VCP occurred in 4.6% and 4.3% patients (p = 0.878) and VCP was permanent in 0.7% and 0.4% patients (p = 0.607) in the non-IONM and IONM groups, respectively. Among the nerves at risk, transient damage occurred in 2.8% and 3.0% patients (p = 0.901), and permanent damage occurred in 0.4% and 0.3% (p = 0.688), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed no significant risk factors for VCP. There was a significant decreasing trend in VCP rates over time as the cumulative number of cases increased (p = 0.017).

CONCLUSIONS

IONM did not reduce the risk of VCP significantly. However, the declining trend of VCP rates suggests that the surgeon's experience may mitigate VCP risk.