Table 1.
Thyroid reoperations: the patients’ demographic and intraoperative characteristics
| Thyroid reoperations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-monitored group (visual RLN identification) | Monitored group (RLN identification with IONM) | p value | |
| Number of patients | 24 | 37 | – |
| RLNs at risk | 45 | 60 | – |
| Males | 3 (12.5%) | 5 (13.5%) | 0.909** |
| Females | 21 (87.5%) | 32 (86.5%) | |
| Age (years) | 57.83 ± 14.43 | 55.75 ± 12.35 | 0.9252* |
| Volume of thyroid gland (ml) | 29 ± 12.7 | 34 ± 8.9 | 0.4657*** |
| Recurrence of goiter | 18 (75%) | 31 (84%) | 0.399** |
| Multinodular goiter/thyroiditis | 14 | 24 | |
| Toxic goiter | 4 | – | |
| Papillary thyroid cancer | – | 5 | |
| Reoperation due to thyroid carcinoma | 6 (25%) | 6 (24%) | |
| Papillary carcinoma | 6 | 4 | |
| Follicular carcinoma | – | 2 | |
| The extent of primary thyroid operation: | 0.1015** | ||
| Bilateral: | 21 (87.5%) | 30 (81%) | |
| Subtotal thyroidectomy | 18 (75%) | 20 (54%) | |
| Near total thyroidectomy | 3 (12.5%) | 3 (8%) | |
| Dunhill operation: | – | 7(19%) | |
| Unilateral: | 3 (12.5%) | 7(19%) | |
| Lobectomy | 3 (12.5%) | 7(19%) | |
| Retrosternal goiter | 6 (25%) | 10 (27%) | 0.5259** |
| Displacement, narrowing of trachea | 10 (42%) | 26 (70%) | 0.0854** |
RLN recurrent laryngeal nerve, IONM intraoperative nerve monitoring
*t-test, ** Fisher’s exact test, *** Mann–Whitney U-test