Not likely. Difficulty speaking and hoarseness can occur during surgery to remove plaque in the carotid artery despite perfect surgical technique. This should be discussed with patients before surgery.
Studies show that up to one-third of all carotid surgery patients suffer some form of vocal cord damage. Surgical patients can suffer vocal cord paralysis or damage in any surgery during which they are intubated to artificially support breathing. Intubation itself is a risk factor.
One common cause of vocal cord paralysis following this surgery is from a dividing of a nerve that attaches to the vocal chords called the recurrent laryngeal nerve. However, dividing this nerve is sometimes necessary to gain access to the carotid artery.
Whether the division is required or not depends on the body type and anatomy of the patient. Certain body types require bifurcating the carotid quite high on the patient and it is these high bifurcations that more often require division of the recurrent laryngeal nerve.
If a patient has already undergone one carotid endarterectomy, then doctors should examine the vocal chords before surgery to determine if the vocal cord was paralyzed in the prior surgery. If the patient has not undergone a carotid endartectomy, doctors do not commit medical negligence by not examining the vocal chords before an initial carotid endarterectomy.
Luckily, the difficulty speaking and hoarseness will usually disappear within 3-6 months. Only rarely is it permanent.
Pursuing these injuries as medical malpractice cases is quite difficult. Even experts find it difficult to determine if the injury was the fault of the surgeon or the anesthesiologist. Because vocal cord paralysis is so common in these surgeries, it becomes difficult to indicate what the doctor could have done differently to prevent the injury.
In addition, the site of the damage can be difficult to determine so proving the exact error in the surgeon's technique is challenging.
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