Table 2.

Indication and exclusion for surgery

	Trial	Indication for surgery	Exclusion criteria
1	Yoo HH et al.	Benign thyroid nodules	Nodule > 40 mm diameter
		Potentially thyroid nodules	Poorly differentiated thyroid cancer
			Lateral lymph-node metastasis
			Distant metastasis
			Invasion to adjacent organs
2	Tae K et al.	Benign thyroid nodules	Nodule > 50 mm diameter
		Follicular neoplasm	Nodule > 50 mm diameter
		Differentiated thyroid carcinoma	Nodule > 10 mm diameter
			Cervical lymph-node metastasis
			No single
3	Lee S et al.	Well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma	Multiple lateral cervical lymph-node metastases
			Distant metastasis
			Invasion to adjacent organs
			Location in the thyroid dorsal area
4	Lee J et al.	Follicular neoplasm	Nodule > 50 mm diameter
		Differentiated thyroid carcinoma	Nodule > 30 mm diameter
			Multiple lateral cervical lymph- metastases
			Distant metastasis
			Invasion to adjacent organs
			Previous neck surgery
			Severe Graves’ disease
			Location in the thyroid dorsal area
5	Lang BHH et al.	Benign thyroid nodules	Nodule > 40 mm diameter
		Potentially thyroid nodules	Nodule > 20 mm diameter
6	Kim WW et al.	Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma	Nodule > 10 mm diameter
			Central cervical lymph- node metastases
			Distant metastasis
			Invasion to adjacent organs
			Severe thyroiditis