Tymets V. Methods, tools, and information technologies of identification of recurrent laryngeal nerve

The dissertation considers the scientific and technical task for improving the informational technology and software for RLN identification in the area of thyroid gland surgery. During such surgeries, there is a high risk of injuring RLN, which is one of the most widely spread complications of surgery on the thyroid gland. RLN injury has a negative effect on the human’s vocal apparatus and respiratory system. In the worst case, it can lead to the vocal cords paralysis and the loss of voice. For this reason, during such surgeries, special programmatic and technical measures are applied in order to monitor RLN. Their principle of operation is based on the irritation of the surgical area and processing the reaction of the RLN on this irritation. The dissertation analyzes the current software and technical means of the RLN monitoring. We have defined that there is no one completely safe programmatic and technical complex that could calculate the distance from the point of surgery wound tissue irritation to RLN regardless of physiological characteristics of the patient’s surgery wound tissue.