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Vocal palsy increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infection in low-risk, low-morbidity patients undergoing thyroidectomy for benign disease: A big data analysis.

S A Reza NouraeiJ AllenH KaddourS E MiddletonP AylinA DarziN S Tolley
Published in: Clinical otolaryngology : official journal of ENT-UK ; official journal of Netherlands Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology & Cervico-Facial Surgery (2017)
There is a significant association between post-thyroidectomy vocal palsy and long-term risks of hospital readmission, dysphagia, hospitalisation for lower respiratory tract infection, and gastrostomy/tracheostomy tube placement. This adds weight to the need, from a thyroid surgical perspective, to undertake universal post-thyroidectomy laryngeal surveillance as a minimum standard of care, with a focus on post-operative dysphagia and aspiration, and from a medical/respiratory perspective, to initiate investigations to identify occult vocal palsy in patients who present with pneumonia, who have a history of thyroid surgery.
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