ObjectiveTo investigate effect of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring in video-assisted thyroidectomy for huge thyroid nodules. MethodsThe clinical data of 158 patients with huge thyroid nodules underwent videoassisted thyroidectomy from January 2013 to June 2015 were analyzed retrospectively, the recurrent laryngeal nerves were monitored in 79 cases (monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group) while the recurrent laryngeal nerves were not monitored in the other patients (non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group). The operative time, blood loss, postoperative drainage, postoperative hospital stay, and the incidences of transient and permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury were observed between these two groups. ResultsThe video-assisted miniincision thyroidectomy was successfully completed in these 158 cases. Compared with the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group, the operative time (min) was shorter (76.2±23.4 versus 89.2±29.8, P < 0.05), the blood loss and the postoperative drainage were less (16.3±13.6 versus 20.6±10.7, P < 0.05; 20.7±9.6 versus 25.5±9.1, P < 0.05) in the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group. But the postoperative hospital stay (d) had no significant difference between the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group and the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group (3.2±1.3 versus 3.3±1.9, P > 0.05). Eight weeks later, the incidence of transient recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group was significantly lower than that in the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group [5.6% (5/90) versus 21.8% (17/78), P < 0.05], while the incidence of permanent nerve injury had no statistical difference between the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group and the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group [0(0/90) versus 1.3% (1/78), P > 0.05]. ConclusionRecurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring under video-assisted thyroidectomy for huge thyroid nodules could effectively reduce incidence of nerve injury and shorten operation time.