Latencies longer than 3.5 ms after vagus nerve stimulation does not exclude a nonrecurrent inferior laryngeal nerve

BMC Surgery

Turid Aas³  Martin Biermann²  Katrin Brauckhoff³  Helle Naterstad³  Michael Brauckhoff¹ 

[1]Haukeland University Hospital Bergen, Jonas Lies vei 65, 5021 Bergen, Norway

[2]Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

[3]Department of Surgery, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

关键词: Nerve conduction velocity;    Latency;    Intraoperative neurostimulation;    Nonrecurrent laryngeal nerve;   

Others  :  1118351
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2482-14-61

 received in 2014-03-16, accepted in 2014-08-19,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

It has recently been reported that a signal latency shorter than 3.5 ms after electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve signify a nonrecurrent course of the inferior laryngeal nerve. We present a patient with an ascending nonrecurrent inferior laryngeal nerve. In this patient, the stimulation latency was longer than 3.5 ms.

Case presentation

A 74-years old female underwent redo surgery due to a right-sided recurrent nodular goitre. The signal latency on electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve at the level of the carotid artery bifurcation was 3.75 ms. Further dissection revealed a nonrecurrent but ascending course of the inferior laryngeal nerve. Caused by the recurrent goitre, the nerve was elongated to about 10 cm resulting in this long latency.

Conclusion

This case demonstrates that the formerly proposed “3.5 ms rule” for identifying a nonrecurrent course of the inferior laryngeal nerve has exceptions. A longer latency does not necessarily exclude a nonrecurrent laryngeal nerve.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Brauckhoff et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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