• Pankaj Kundra, Vinoth Kumar, Krishnamachari Srinivasan, Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan, and Sudeep Krishnappa.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Surgery ENT, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry 605006, India. p_kundra@hotmail.com
• ANZ J Surg. 2010 Nov 1;80(11):817-21.

BackgroundAssessment of vocal cord mobility using Macintosh laryngoscope is frequently performed after extubation following thyroid surgery to rule out laryngeal nerve palsy. This study compared patient comfort and assessment accuracy of post-operative vocal fold mobility with Macintosh laryngoscope and fibreoptic endoscope.MethodsOne hundred four physically fit patients undergoing thyroid surgery were included for the study. Tele-laryngoscopy was done to rule out pre-existing vocal cord palsy. Direct laryngoscopy (DL) was performed to each patient after extubation, followed by nasal fibreoptic endoscopy (NFE) to assess the vocal cord mobility. Tele-laryngoscopic assessment was repeated after 1 week to compare the DL and NFE findings. Patient reactivity score (PRS) and haemodynamic parameters were recorded with each technique.ResultsMacintosh laryngoscope could pick up 4 (50% sensitivity and 88% specificity) and fibreoptic endoscope 7 (87.9% sensitivity and 98.9% specificity) out of the 8 vocal cord palsies identified by tele-laryngoscopy. Patients had significant discomfort during DL (PRS median 3) when compared with NFE and tele-laryngoscopy (PRS median 2), P<0.05. Grade 1 view of larynx in 92.1% patients during intubation worsened to grade 2 (76.3%) and grade 3 (15.8%) during extubation with DL, and a significant rise in mean arterial pressure and heart rate was observed from the baseline value till 5 min and when compared with NFE (P<0.05).ConclusionNFE provides accurate assessment of vocal fold mobility with reasonable patient comfort in the immediate post-operative period. Macintosh laryngoscope fails to give optimum visualization and predisposes the patient to significant discomfort and stress.© 2010 The Authors. ANZ Journal of Surgery © 2010 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

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