Intraoperative identification of the human communicating nerve during thyroidectomy

Benjamin L Hodnett; Nicole C Schmitt; Parthasarathy D Thirumala; Umamaheswar Duvvuri

doi:10.1093/jscr/rjv154

Intraoperative identification of the human communicating nerve during thyroidectomy

J Surg Case Rep. 2015 Dec 13;2015(12):rjv154. doi: 10.1093/jscr/rjv154.

Authors

Benjamin L Hodnett¹, Nicole C Schmitt², Parthasarathy D Thirumala³, Umamaheswar Duvvuri⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
² Johns Hopkins University Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tumor Biology Section, National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Department of Neurological Surgery & Neurology, Center for Clinical Neurophysiology (CCN), UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁴ Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, VA Pittsburgh Health System, Eye and Ear Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA duvvuriu@upmc.edu.

Abstract

The human communicating nerve (HCN) is a connection between the superior and recurrent laryngeal nerves that has been described in cadaveric studies. We report a case of an extralaryngeal variant of the HCN that was identified and stimulated intraoperatively during thyroidectomy. This appears to be the first case of intraoperative identification of this anatomic variant, of which the functional significance remains unclear.

Publication types

Case Reports