Dr. Özer Makay is an expert in nerve monitoring during thyroid surgery, and has been a guest faculty member in South Korea, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Bulgaria.
This episode covers the following topics:
* Protecting the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) and superior laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery.
* Outcomes of damaging these nerves during surgery include no voice, hoarseness, shortness of breath, problem with drinking water or aspiration, impaired physical exertion with something as simple as climbing a flight of stairs.
* Why some centers have a higher occurrence of damage during thyroid surgery and include an error rate as high as 10%
* The cause of the damaged nerve include stretching or traction, and cutting or stitching.
* How to reduce risk.
* Is it possible to reattach a cut nerve?