Table 3. Comparison of postoperative tumor characteristics in patients eligible for hypothetical lobectomy and total thyroidectomy based on preoperative tumor sizes.

Postoperative presence of	Lobectomy eligible patients			Total thyroidectomy eligible patients			*p1	**p2	***p3
	<10 mm, n= 25	11-20 mm, n= 16	21-39 mm, n= 7	<10 mm, n= 16	11-20 mm, n= 18	21-39 mm, n= 9
Multifocality	12 (48.0)	5 (31.3)	1 (14.3)	7 (43.8)	11 (61.1)	6 (66.7)	0.790	0.082	0.060
Contralateral multifocality	8 (32.0)	3 (18.8)	1 (14.3)	5 (31.3)	10 (55.6)	6 (66.7)	0.960	0.028	0.060
Capsule invasion	7 (28.0)	5 (31.3)	2 (28.6)	3 (18.8)	7 (38.9)	4 (44.4)	0.712	0.642	0.633
ETE	1 (4.0)	2 (12.5)	0 (0.0)	1 (6.3)	4 (22.4)	2 (22.2)	1.000	0.660	0.475
Presence of pathological aggressive variant	4 (16.0)	0 (0.0)	1 (14.3)	3 (18.8)	2 (11.1)	1 (11.1)	1.000	0.487	1.000
Central lymph node metasta­sis	8 (32.0)	5 (31.3)	3 (42.9)	12 (75)	11 (61.1)	6 (66.7)	0.007	0.082	0.615
Metastatic central lymph node count	0.00 (1.00)	0.00 (1.00)	0.00 (2.00)	2.00 (4.00)	2.00 (4.00)	5.00 (8.00)	0.007	0.117	0.142
Metastatic central lymph node size (mm)	0.00 (0.80)	0.00 (0.50)	0.00 (4.00)	2.30 (3.58)	0.55 (3.50)	2.20 (8.00)	0.001	0.095	0.252
ETE: Extrathyroidal extension. All data are represented as either median (IQR) or number (percentage). *p1: LT vs TT in <10 mm. **p2: LT vs TT in 11-20 mm. ***p3: LT vs TT in 21-39 mm.