Surgery of benign thyroid disease by ENT/head and neck surgeons and general surgeons: 233 cases of vocal fold paralysis in 3509 patients

Purpose Thyroid surgery is mainly performed by general surgeons (GS). The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficiency of thyroid surgery by ENT/head and neck surgeons (ENT), especially regarding the incidence of vocal fold palsy (VFP). Methods We retrospectively analysed 3509 patients (69.0% female) who underwent surgery for benign thyroid diseases (56.8% nodular goitre, 18.6% inactive nodes, 14.0% thyroid autonomy, 7.0% Graves’ disease). Operations were mainly performed with intraoperative neuromonitoring by GS ( n = 1933) or physicians trained for head and neck surgery ( n = 1576). 18.7% of the procedures were carried out by residents in training. Results VFP occurred in 233 subjects (6.6%); 6.2% in females and 7.6% in males. A lower rate ( p