Table 1.
Characteristics of patients
| Characteristics | With IONM | Without IONM |
|---|---|---|
| n = 306 | n = 548 | |
| Ratio (female:male) | 247:59 | 440:108 |
| Mean age ± SD (years) | 54.6 ± 13.2 | 54.0 ± 13.6 |
| Preoperative diagnosis | ||
| Non-toxic multinodular goitre | 220 (71.9)† | 356 (65.0)† |
| Toxic multinodular goitre | 9 (2.9) | 17 (3.1) |
| Graves’ disease | 2 (0.7) | 8 (1.5) |
| Differentiated thyroid cancer | 70 (22.9)‡ | 161 (29.4)‡ |
| Medullary thyroid cancer | 5 (1.6) | 6 (1.1) |
| Number of previous operations | ||
| 1 | 258 | 485 |
| 2 | 29 | 59 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Preoperative RLN palsy λ | 7 (2.3) | 11 (2.0) |
Data are presented as numbers (%) unless otherwise indicated. λ calculated for patients
IONM intraoperative nerve monitoring, RLN recurrent laryngeal nerve, SD standard deviation
† p = 0.038; ‡ p = 0.040 all other differences were not significant