Methods
intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve
This RCT was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of our institution (No. H-2105–016-1217) and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov registry before the enrolment of patients (ID: NCT05047939; 17/09/2021). The study was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki, and all participants provided written informed consent before the study. We designed and reported the study findings following the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials recommendations [All adult patients scheduled to undergo elective open thyroidectomy without intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve neuromonitoring were screened for their eligibility. Inclusion criteria were adult patients (aged between 18 and 70 years) with an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status of I–II. Patients aged less than 18 years or more than 70 years; those who had an ASA physical status III or higher; those who had a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 40 kg.m