Thyroidectomy patients may have vocal paralysis or paresis, resulting in a breathy voice. The aim of this study was to investigate the aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of a breathy voice in thyroidectomy patients. Thirty-five subjects who have vocal paralysis after thyroidectomy participated in this study. According to perceptual judgements by three speech pathologists and one phonetic scholar, subjects were divided into two groups: breathy voice group (n = 21) and non-breathy voice group (n = 14). Aerodynamic analysis was conducted by three tasks (Voicing Efficiency, Maximum Sustained Phonation, Vital Capacity) and acoustic analysis was measured during Maximum Sustained Phonation task. The breathy voice group had significantly higher subglottal pressure and more pathological voice characteristics than the non breathy voice group. Showing 94.1% classification accuracy in result logistic regression of aerodynamic analysis, the predictor parameters for breathiness were maximum sound pressure level, sound pressure level range, phonation time of Maximum Sustained Phonation task and Pitch range, peak air pressure, and mean peak air pressure of Voicing Efficiency task. Classification accuracy of acoustic logistic regression was 88.6%, and five frequency perturbation parameters were shown as predictors. Vocal paralysis creates air turbulence at the glottis. It fluctuates frequency-related parameters and increases aspiration in high frequency areas. These changes determine perceptual breathiness.