Dissections of the recurrent laryngeal nerves (RLN) were made on 50 cadavers (100 RLN). The right nerves were found to be anterior to the inferior thyroid artery in a half of cases and the left nerves were found more posterior to the artery (38 of 50). 64% of nerves branched off into 2 to 5 branches before entering the larynx. 89%of nerves tan medially to the suspensory ligment and 91% of nerves located inferior and somewhat superfical to the cornu before entering the laryx. Based on this finding, we instituted the policy of lingitunal dissection of the Berry’s ligament close the capsule of thyroid gland, 70 patients underwent operation (83 nerves), the nerves were exposed in 39 cases and unexposed in 44, there was no injury to the nerve in this serries. The authors believe that to familiarize the anatomy and the skillful technic is crucial to prevent injury to the RLN, and it is unnecessary to expose the RLN rountinely.
