Laryngeal nerve monitoring and endoscopic thyroidectomy

After more than 100 years of approaching thyroid surgery in the manner described by Theodore Kocher in the 19th century, thyroidectomy has undergone tremendous change during the past 6 to 8 years. Chief among them have been the development of minimally invasive surgical methods and the emergence of reliable laryngeal nerve monitoring techniques. The author describes a logical approach that exploits these complementary technologies.