Objective: To investigate the clinical application value of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) in the prevention of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury during repeated operation for thyroid carcinoma. Methods: One hundred and thirty-seven patients scheduled to undergo a repeated operation for thyroid cancer from January 2012 to December 2014 were selected. Of the patients, RLN in 41 cases was identified by naked- eye inspection only during operation (control group), and in 96 cases was identified by naked- eye inspection combined with IONM (study group). The RLN recognition and injury rates, postoperative drainage and incidence of parathyroid damage between the two groups were compared. Results: The RLN recognition rate was 100% (96/96) in study group and 82.3% (34/41) in control group, and the difference had statistical significance (P<0.05). In study group versus control group, the incidence of RLN damage (1.0% vs. 9.8%) and postoperative drainage (38.1 mL vs. 44.1 mL) were significantly reduced (both P<0.05). The difference in incidence of parathyroid injury between the two groups had no statistical significance (8.3% vs. 12.2%, P>0.05). Conclusion: Application of IONM during repeated surgery for thyroid cancer can effectively improve RLN recognition and reduce the incidence of RLN injury, as well as reduce the incidence of complications.