Table 1.

Characteristics of patients.

Characteristics	Values
No. of patients	529
Gender (M/F) (%)	118/411 (22.3/77.7)
Age (yrs), mean ±SD (range)	44.5±11.1 (13–74)
Tumor size (cm), mean ±SD (range)	1.6±1.1 (0.2–7.0)
Location of the primary tumors
Solitary lesion, n (%)	450 (85.1)
upper/middle/lower third, n(%)	113/173/164 (21.4/32.7/31.0)
Multifocal lesions, n (%)	79 (14.9)
in a unilateral lobe/in both lobes, n(%)	13/66 (2.5/12.4)
Extrathyroid extension, n (%)	6(1.1)
T1/T2/T3/T4, n (%)	364/73/86/6 (68.8/13.8/16.3/1.1)
TSH (mIU/L), mean ±SD (range)	1.99±1.66 (0.02–14.25)
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, n (%)	116 (21.9)
Central lymph node metastasis, n (%)	238(45.0)
Dissected lymph node, mean ±SD (range)	3.6±3.2 (0–16)
Metastatic lymph node, mean ±SD (range)	1.4±1.9 (0–11)