A safe technique for thyroidectomy with complete nerve dissection and parathyroid preservation.

A series of 1,000 consecutive thyroid operations is presented, without a case of permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. Emphasis is placed on the identification of variations and complete dissection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, including peripheral branches and technical aspects of the dissection. Sixty-five percent of the cases had multiple terminal branches of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and five cases on the right side had a nonrecurrent course. A low incidence of hypoparathyroidism is presented, due in part to the avoidance of ligating the inferior thyroid artery in continuity and the technique of extracapsular dissection of the thyroid gland. The external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve was protected by the early mobilization of the superior thyroid vessels and ligatures placed flush on the capsule of the superior pole.