Objective To study the clinical value of exposure of recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid operation for the prevention of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. Methods A total of 90 patients received thyroid operation in our hospital from April 2012 to August 2014 were enrolled and randomly divided into observation group(n=45) and control group(n=45) according to whether the recurrent laryngeal nerve were exposed during operation. The patients in observation group received thyroid operation with recurrent laryngeal nerve exposure, and the patients in control group received conventional thyroid operation. Then recurrent laryngeal nerve injury situation and operation situa-tion were compared. Results Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury symptoms were less in the observation group (2. 22%) compared with that of the control group (15. 56%) with a statistically singnificant difference(P<0. 05). The operation time of observation group (54. 45 ± 6. 62) min was longer than that of the control group (41. 29 ± 5. 82) min with a statistically singnificant difference (P<0. 05). The recovery time of observation group (5. 85 ± 0. 85) d was shorter than that of the control group (8. 02 ± 1. 12) d, with a statistically singnificant differ-ence (P<0. 05). There was no significant difference in bleeding volume during operation,postoperative drainage volume and drainage dura-tion between two groups(P>0. 05). Conclusion Exposure of recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid operation is helpful to prevent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury,which reduce the damage recovery time,although it will extend the operation time,does not increase bleeding and drainage volume.