A large-scale study of patients with preoperative vocal cord paralysis associated with thyroid disease and related clinicopathological features.

The preoperative VCP incidence rate had gradually decreased with an increased proportion of papillary thyroid cancer. Preoperative voice symptoms do not necessarily suggest a malignancy. Selective rather than routine preoperative laryngoscopic examinations should be performed on papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. The probability of preoperative VCP in malignancy was significantly higher than in benign lesions.