Injury and repair of the recurrent laryngeal nerves in dogs.

Surgical repair of recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries has received renewed experimental attention in recent years. 1,2,3 This work has been motivated by the considerable disability which vocal cord paralysis continues to cause, particularly regarding phonation, aspiration on swallowing, and difficulty in breathing. Interest in direct nerve repair has also evolved out of the frequent failure to achieve complete rehabilitation of the laryngeal functions with the usual surgical procedures of tracheostomy, arytenoidectomy and arytenopexy, and vocal fold injection and displacement techniques.