Frequency of Vocal Cord Paralysis in Thyroidectomy

Abstract

Back ground: Recurrent laryngeal nerves being adjacent to the thyroid glands are prone to surgical trauma by thyroid surgery done for thyroid disease leading to vocal cord paralysis. Aim: To determine frequency of vocal cord paralysis in thyroidectomy Methodology: This is a descriptive cases series was completed in 6 months [December 4, 2019 till June 4, 2020] at Department ENT, Sir Ganga Ram hospital Lahore. The sample technique used is non-probability consecutive sampling .All 170 patients meeting inclusion criteria were inducted in the study from ENT SGR hospital, Lahore. Results: The mean age of all patients was 39.52±11.30 years with minimum and maximum age as 20 and 60 years. There were 91(53.5%) cases that were 20-40 years old and 79(46.5%) cases were 41-60 years old. There were 62(36.5%) male and 108(63.5%) female cases with higher female to male ratio. In 96(56.5%) cases left side and in 74(43.5%) cases right side was involved. There were 37(21.8%) who had vocal cord paralysis while 133(78.2%) cases did not have vocal cord paralysis. Conclusion: It is concluded that high number of patients i.e. 21.8% had vocal cord paralysis, so in future ENT surgeons should adopt safety measures for prevention of VCP such anatomical considerations of the sensitive area Keywords: ENT, thyroidectomy, complications, vocal cord paralysis