Objective To investigate the anatomical character and variation of non-recurrent laryngeal nerve （NRLN）， and to explore measurement to identify and prevent injury of this nerve during thyroidectomy. Methods Clinical data of 2 211 patients who underwent thyroidectomy from Jan. 2007 to Jun. 2012 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital were analyzed retrospectively， and 114 patients with NRLN of related literature reviews were analyzed too. Results There were 3 479 recurrent laryngeal nerve （2 211 cases） which were exposed during thyroid operation in Peking Union Medical College Hospital， of which 11 cases were confirmed to be right NRLN （0.32%， 11/3 479）. Of the 11 cases， 3 cases were typeⅠ， 7 cases were typeⅡA， and 1 case was typeⅡB， one case was also found to have a recurrent branch. None of them injured during operation. One hundred and fourteen cases of NRLN （0.14%-4%） were found in literature reviews. Of the 114 cases， 109 cases were confirmed to be right NRLN， of which 4 cases were typeⅠ （3.7%， 4/109）， 75 cases were typeⅡA （68.8%， 75/109）， 9 cases were typeⅡB （8.3%， 9/109）， 21 cases were unclear （19.3%， 21/109）， 3 cases were also found to have a recurrent branch （2.8%，3/109）. Five cases were confirmed to be left NRLN， of which 2 cases were typeⅡA， 3 cases were unclear， 1 case was also found to have a recurrent branch. Of all the 104 cases reported by treatises and case reports， 16 cases injured during operation， of which 1 case was typeⅠ， 9 cases were typeⅡA， 6 cases were unclear. Conclusions NRLN， which is a rare anomaly， usually happens on the right， and very vulnerable during thyroid surgery. The most usually injured type is typeⅡA. Fully acknowledgment of the NRLN and its variant types is very helpful to avoid damage during thyroid surgery.
Objective To investigate the clinicopathological features, postoperative survival and prognostic influencing factors of male patients with hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC）. Methods The clinicopathological features and the follow-up data of 155 male HCC patients who received hepatectomy from Jan. 1995 to Dec. 2002 were retrospectively analyzed and the prognostic influencing factors were defined by uni- and multi-variate analysis. Results Compared with 24 female patients at the same period, males were about six-year older and both of their hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and liver cirrhosis positive rates were higher (P＜0.05)， but there were no significant differences of the other clinicopathological parameters between the male group and the female group. Multivariate analysis showed that Edmondson-Steiner grade and portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) were two independent prognostic influencing factors of both the overall survival and the tumor-free postoperative survival of male patients with HCC, while satellite nodule and tumor size only influenced the overall survival. Conclusion The main clinicopathological features and the postoperative survival of male HCC patients were similar than those of female’s. Tumor differentiation and biological behaviors were major factors affecting postoperative survival of male patients with HCC.