Abstract

Bilateral recurrent laryngeal paralysis is an uncommon complication of total or subtotal thyroidectomy, observed in approximately 0.4 per cent of cases. This paralysis could be temporary or permanent. An audit of 5 cases referred to the ENT Department of National Hospital Abuja, between January 2010 and July 2017 is presented. All cases were referred already on tracheostomy tubes and were females aged 11 to 59 years. 4 of the cases had external arytenoidectomy, bilateral in 2 cases, and unilateral in 2 cases. 4 out of the 5 cases were successfully decannulated. The preferred approach to cases of post-thyroidectomy bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis referred to ENT Specialists in resource-poor economy like ours is not very clear from existing literature and we discuss our adopted protocol for management of such cases in this case series.

Keywords: Post-thyroidectomy; Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy; Arytenoidectomy