An applied anatomical study on the external laryngeal nerve loop and the superior thyroid artery in the neck surgical region

This study was conducted to investigate the topographic relationship between the external laryngeal nerve (ELN) loop and the superior thyroid artery (STA), in order to provide the anatomical foundations for protecting the ELN during surgery. In the present study, 48 adult human cadavers were dissect...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anatomical science international 2015-09, Vol.90 (4), p.209-215
Main Authors: Lu, Wei-Tian, Sun, Shan-Quan, Huang, Juan, Zhong, Yuan, Xu, Jin, Gan, Sheng-Wei, Guo, Lu, Mo, Ting-Ting
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomy
Animal Anatomy
Animal Physiology
Arteries - anatomy & histology
Cadaver
Cell Biology
Female
Histology
Human Physiology
Humans
Laryngeal Nerves - anatomy & histology
Larynx
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Morphology
Neck - blood supply
Neck - innervation
Neurosciences
Original Article
Thyroid Gland - blood supply
Topography
Veins & arteries
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study was conducted to investigate the topographic relationship between the external laryngeal nerve (ELN) loop and the superior thyroid artery (STA), in order to provide the anatomical foundations for protecting the ELN during surgery. In the present study, 48 adult human cadavers were dissected and analyzed. For the 21 (21.9 %) low-position ELN loops observed, the neurovascular relationship between the STA and the nerve was classified into four types: (1) the artery overlapped the nerve; (2) the artery passed through the ELN loop; (3) the muscular branch of the ELN loop and the laryngeal branch of the STA coursed together; and (4) the branches of the STA and the ELN loop were interlaced. Our study suggested that the patterns of ELN loops are so complicated that they have not been statistically defined in any previous study, which should be kept in mind when attempting to protect the nerve from injury. Also, because of the variable morphology of the ELN loop and its complicated topographic relationship to the STA, the vessels should be individually isolated and then ligated during thyroidectomy. When ligating the laryngeal branch of the STA during larynx surgery, special attention should be paid to avoiding damage to the muscular branch of the ELN/ELN loop.
ISSN:1447-6959
1447-073X
DOI:10.1007/s12565-014-0246-x