The incidence of RLN symptoms after surgery was 2.7% (9 of 328). The incidence of RLN symptoms was 2.1% with anterior cervical discectomy, 3.5% with corpectomy (5 of 141), 3% with instrumentation (8 of 237), and 9.5% with reoperative anterior surgery (2 of 21). There was a significant increase in the rate of injury with reoperative anterior fusion. There was no association between the side of approach and the incidence of RLN symptoms.
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Beutler et al. (2001) studied this question.