Management of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in suspected and proven thyroid cancer.

Vocal cord paralysis occurs with and without infiltration of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Patients with no paralysis may have recurrent laryngeal nerve infiltration. We studied 262 patients with invasive thyroid carcinoma and an additional 480 patients that we operated on, and we offer an approach to the management of the recurrent laryngeal nerve during surgery for suspected or proven thyroid cancer. Because complete excision of papillary carcinoma with resection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve did not improve survival over incomplete excision, we recommend incomplete excision of papillary carcinoma infiltrating a functioning recurrent laryngeal nerve with postoperative I-131 and thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression. We observed (1) lymphoma and Reidel's thyroiditis causing paralysis with infiltration of the recurrent laryngeal nerve with recovery of function, (2) benign and malignant nodules causing paralysis without infiltration of the recurrent laryngeal nerve with recovery of function, and (3) infiltration of the recurrent laryngeal nerve without paralysis in lymphoma, Graves' disease, and thyroiditis. In surgery for a suspicious nodule with paralysis, identify the recurrent laryngeal nerve, resect it if it is infiltrated by carcinoma, and preserve it if not infiltrated or if infiltrated by any pathology besides carcinoma.