Unusual nodular goiter with recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy due to severe degeneration caused by intense chronic inflammation: a case report with histopathological evidence and review of the literature

Table 2 Characteristics of the patients who underwent surgery for benign thyroid disease presenting with preoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsy (n = 117) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]

Category		N	(%)^d
Age, y	< 44	3	8.1
	45—64	17	45.9
	≧ 65	17	45.9
	NA	80	/
Sex	Male	14	32.6
	Female	29	67.4
	NA	74	/
RLNP side	Right	31	44.3
	Left	39	55.7
	N/A	47	/
Histopathology	AG/MNG/NG/NH	92	78.6
	Follicular adenoma	6	5.1
	Hashimoto’s thyroiditis	6	5.1
	Cyst	2	1.7
	Graves disease	1	0.9
	N/A	10	8.5
Contributing factor^a	Compression	37	31.6
	Adhesion	11	9.4
	Stretching	10	8.5
	Displacement	3	2.6
	Inflammation	1	0.9
	NA	63	53.8
Intraoperative RLN preservation	Yes	99	84.6
Intraoperative RLN preservation	No^b	4	3.4
	NA	14	12.0
Postoperative vocal cord recovery	Yes	79	67.5
Postoperative vocal cord recovery	No^c	20	17.1
	NA	18	15.4

NA Not assigned or not available, RLNP Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, AG adenomatous goiter, MNG Multinodular goiter, NG Nodular goiter, NH Nodular hyperplasia
^aSince several cases were shown to have more than one factor, the sum of the number of each factor (n = 125) exceeds the total number of cases (n = 117), and the sum of the percentages exceeds 100
^bTwo of them were transected and repaired
^cFour case with RLN resection were included
^dIn Age, Sex, and RLNP side, cases of NA were excluded

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