To explore the effect of the ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery in locating the recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery.

The clinical data of 250 patients with nodular goiter who underwent thyroid surgery from May 2019 to July 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent total single-lobe thyroidectomy. The recurrent laryngeal nerve was located by the ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery. They were grouped according to whether an ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery was found during the operation, positive (n=220, the ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery was found) and negative (n=30, the ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery was not found). SPSS 20.0 software was used to analyze the data. Measurement data such as perioperative period were represented by () and independent sample t test was used. Statistical data such as recurrent laryngeal nerve injury were represented by [cases (%)] and χ² test was used for comparison between groups. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

There were no significant differences in intraoperative blood loss, total postoperative drainage and postoperative hospital stay between the two groups (P < 0.05). The operative time of positive group was shorter than that of negative group (P < 0.05). The rate of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in positive group was 0.9%, which was lower than 6.7% in negative group (P < 0.05).

The ascending branch of the inferior thyroid artery can accurately locate the recurrent laryngeal nerve, reduce its injury rate, and effectively reduce the operation time.