journal article·2025-09-12Open access

Electromyographic Identification of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Using an Integrated Hardware–Software System During Thyroid Surgery

Mykola Dyvak, Andriy Melnyk, Volodymyr Tymets, Andriy Dyvak, Arkadiusz Banasik, Karol Piotrowski, Marcin Wawryszczuk

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 18

Abstract

The paper presents a hardware and software complex for monitoring the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) with electromyography (EMG) as the primary tool, observing the RLN’s response to stimulation during intraoperative nerve monitoring (IONM). As a result of the analysis of available IONM tools using EMG, it was found that electromyography is an accurate and safe method for monitoring the bioelectric activity of the vocal cords. The article proposes a concept for monitoring the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) by observing changes in the bioelectric activity of the vocal cords during RLN stimulation. A hardware and software complex was developed in accordance with the concept. The article presents the architecture of the hardware and software of this complex. A detailed description of all hardware parts, their purpose, and their interaction is given. Features of the software and tools used in its development are described. The results of the approval of the complex during thyroid surgery at the VITASANA Medical Center in the city of Ternopil are given. The complex could successfully register and record the change in the biometric potential of the vocal cord at the moment of stimulation of the RLN.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Engineering Technology and Methodologies · Medical and Biological Sciences

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Computer Science, West Ukrainian National University, 11 Lvivs’ka Str., 46000 Ternopil, Ukraine

Department of Clinical Engineering, Academy of Silesia, 40-555 Katowice, Poland

Department of Surgery with Urology No 1 by L. Ya. Kovalchuk, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University, Klinichna Street 1, 46001 Ternopil, Ukraine

Funding

Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland

References (41)

Show source-provided references
1. Malcharek, M., and Priebe, H.J. (2024). Anesthesia and IONM. Intraoperative Neuromonitoring: Fundamentals, Possibilities, Limitations, Springer International Publishing.10.1007/978-3-031-46125-5_7 ↗
2. Valenzuela-Fuenzalida, J.J., Baeza-Garrido, V., Navia-Ramírez, M.F., Cariseo-Ávila, C., Bruna-Mejías, A., Becerra-Farfan, Á., Lopez, E., Orellana Donoso, M., and Loyola-Sepulveda, W. (2023). Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Variants and Their Implication in Surgery and Neck Pathologies, Using the Anatomical Quality Assurance (AQUA) Checklist. Life, 13.10.3390/life13051077 ↗
3. Brunet, A., Rovira, A., Quer, M., Sanabria, A., Guntinas-Lichius, O., Zafereo, M., Hartl, D.M., Coca-Pelaz, A., Shaha, A.R., and Marie, J.-P. (2024). Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Intraoperative Neuromonitoring Indications in Non-Thyroid and Non-Parathyroid Surgery. J. Clin. Med., 13.10.3390/jcm13082221 ↗
4. Thomas, A.M., Fahim, D.K., and Gemechu, J.M. (2020). Anatomical Variations of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve and Implications for Injury Prevention during Surgical Procedures of the Neck. Diagnostics, 10.10.3390/diagnostics10090670 ↗
5. Gumus, S., Yuksel, C., Pulat, H., Akyuz, C., and Gul, M.O. (2024). Inferior-to-Superior Dissection for Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Identification in Redo Thyroid Surgery: Enhanced Safety and Reduced Injuries. J. Clin. Med., 13.10.3390/jcm13237364 ↗
6. Tabriz, N., Muehlbeyer, S., Weyhe, D., and Uslar, V. (2024). Risk Factors for Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Palsy in Thyroid Surgery: A Single Center Experience of 1147 Procedures with Intermittent Intraoperative Neuromonitoring. J. Pers. Med., 14.10.3390/jpm14070714 ↗
7. Wang, L., Dou, Q., Fletcher, P.T., Speidel, S., and Li, S. (2022). Localizing the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve via Ultrasound with a Bayesian Shape Framework. Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention—MICCAI 2022, Springer. Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
8. Electrophysiologic recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring during thyroid and parathyroid surgery: International standards guideline statement10.1002/lary.21119 ↗
9. Intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring using endotracheal electromyography during parathyroidectomy for secondary hyperparathyroidism10.1177/03000605211000987 ↗
10. Electrical identification of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. I. Response of the canine larynx to electrical stimulation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve10.1097/00000658-196601000-00006 ↗
11. Identification of the recurrent laryngeal nerve10.1001/archsurg.1966.01320240049010 ↗
12. Spectral analysis of the information signal in the task of identifying the recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid surgery
13. Interval model for identification of laryngeal nerves
14. Adaptive information technology for recurrent laryngeal nerve identification based on electrophysical method of Its stimulation
15. Dyvak, M., Pukas, A., Oliynyk, I., and Melnyk, A. (2018, January 21–25). Selection the “Saturated” Block from Interval System of Linear Algebraic Equations for Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Identification. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Second International Conference on Data Stream Mining & Processing (DSMP), Lviv, Ukraine.10.1109/DSMP.2018.8478528 ↗
16. Formation and Identification of a Model for Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Localization During the Surgery on Neck Organs
17. Porplytsya, N., Dyvak, M., Spivak, I., and Voytyuk, I. (2015, January 24–27). Mathematical and algorithmic foundations for implementation of the method for structure identification of interval difference operator based on functioning of bee colony. Proceedings of the 2015 13th International Conference on The Experience of Designing and Application of CAD Systems in Microelectronics, Lviv, Ukraine.10.1109/CADSM.2015.7230834 ↗
18. Conte, A., Maselli, M., Nacci, A., Manti, M., Galli, J., Paludetti, G., Ursino, F., and Cianchetti, M. (2021, January 12–16). A biorobotic simulator of vocal folds for the reproduction and analysis of electroglottographic signals. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), New Haven, CT, USA.10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479296 ↗
19. Recurrent laryngeal nerve recovery patterns assessed by serial electromyography10.1002/lary.25487 ↗
20. Brewer, D.W. (1964). Movement of the larynx induced by electrical stimulation of the laryngeal nerves. Research Potentials in Voice Physiology, State University of New York Press.
21. Electrical stimulation of the human recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid operation
22. Intraoperative electrophysiologic monitoring of laryngeal muscle during thyroid surgery10.1288/00005537-198812000-00003 ↗
23. A new method for intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring10.1177/014556139407300108 ↗
24. (2025, June 28). Ambu® Neuroline 710. Available online: https://www.ambuaustralia.com.au/neurology/surface-electrodes/product/ambu-neuroline-710.
25. (2025, June 28). Medtronic. Available online: https://www.medtronic.com/.
26. (2025, June 28). Medtronic—Mini Nerve Monitoring System. Available online: https://www.medtronic.com/it-it/operatori-sanitari/products/ear-nose-throat/nerve-monitoring/nim-nerve-monitoring-systems.html.
27. (2025, June 28). Natus. Available online: https://natus.com/neuro/emg/emg-ncs-ep-systems/.
28. (2025, June 28). NA132UA Datasheet. Available online: https://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/477/INA132.php.
29. (2025, June 28). AU2904. Available online: https://www.alldatasheet.com/view.jsp?Searchword=AU2904.
30. Kamen, G., and Gabriel, D. (2010). Essentials of Electromyography, Human Kinetics.10.5040/9781718206649 ↗
31. (2025, June 28). BCM2712-Processor. Available online: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Broadcom-BCM2712-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.873280.0.html.
32. (2025, June 28). MCP3008. Available online: https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/MCP3008.pdf.
33. (2025, June 28). UPS Module 3S. Available online: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/UPS_Module_3S.
34. (2025, June 28). Kivy Documentation. Available online: https://kivy.org/doc/stable/.
35. (2025, June 28). Gpiozero. Available online: https://gpiozero.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
36. Stack, M. (2022). Event-Driven Architecture in Golang Building Complex Systems with Asynchronicity and Eventual Consistency, Packt Publishing.
37. Laryngeal Nerve Identification during Thyroid Surgery with Automatic Adjustment of Electrical Signal Parameters
38. (2025, June 28). What Is Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)?. Available online: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-serial-peripheral-interface-spi/.
39. (2025, June 28). Gpiozero mcp3008. Available online: https://gpiozero.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api_spi.html#mcp3008.
40. (2025, June 28). Matplot. Available online: https://matplotlib.org/stable/.
41. (2025, June 28). Kivy-Garden Matplotlib Flower. Available online: https://pypi.org/project/kivy-garden.matplotlib/.