Effect of thyroidectomy with totally preserved recurrent laryngeal nerve on the objective vocal functions
Abstract
Objective: To study the effect of thyroidectomy with totally preserved recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) on the objective vocal functions.
Methodology: It is a prospective pilot study of 10 patients undergoing thyroid surgery on whom to study the effect of thyroidectomy with totally preserved RLN on the objective vocal functions. Patient history and demographic data were collected at the time of admission and in each period of assessment average fundamental frequency; absolute jitter, shimmer, and others were measured. Furthermore, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) repeated measurements statistical technique was used to test the difference among the 3 time period of measurements and P < 0.05 was considered significant (α = 0.05).
Results: The mean age was 39.5 ± 3.31 years. There were two males and eight females. Total thyroidectomy was performed on eight patients while one had left hemithyroidectomy and one completion thyroidectomy. Histopathology revealed papillary thyroid carcinoma in 50%. 34 acoustic voice analysis parameters were measured using the multidimensional voice program, which showed no significant differences at the end of 1st and 3rd month post-operative as compared to the pre-operative measurements. There was no significant difference in measurement for each factor over the time (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: All the acoustic analysis parameters for 10 patients showed no significant differences in 1st and 3rd month postoperatively as compared to the pre-operative values. However, due to small sample size, our study may have failed to detect any significant difference.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).