Table 3. Results of Surgery and Ablation.

Study	Comparison	Surgery							Ablation
		Pt. (Tumor)	F/U (Month)	Local Recurrence	New Tumor*	LN Meta	Distant Meta	Rescue Surgery	Pt. (Tumor)	F/U (Month)	Local Recurrence	New Tumor†	LN Meta	Distant Meta	Rescue Surgery	VRR (%)
Xu et al. [23]	Surgery vs. MWA	46 (46)	1	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	41 (41)	1	NA	NA	NA	0	NA	NA
Li et al. [22]	Surgery vs. MWA	143 (143)	27.5	0	1	5	0	2	168 (168)	25.1	0	2	5	0	2	73.8‡
Zhou et al. [25]	Surgery vs. LA	45 (45)	48.5	0	1	2	0	1	36 (36)	49.2	0	1	1	0	2	98.4§
Zhang et al. [24]	Surgery vs. RFA	80 (86)	63.6	0	1	1	0	NA	94 (94)	64.2	0	1	0	0	NA	NA
Pooled proportions, totalǁ (95% CI)				0	1.3 (0.4–3.8)	3.3 (1.6–6.4)	0	1.6 (0.5–4.9)			0	1.4 (0.5–3.8)	2.6 (1.2–5.5)	0¶	2.6 (0.6–11.1)

^*New tumor is defined as newly developed cancer separate to the treated PTMC. One new tumor (1/143 [0.7%]) was reported by Li et al. [22] 44.9 months after surgery, one (1/45 [2.2%]) by Zhou et al. [25] 30 months after surgery, and one (1/80 [1.3%]) by Zhang et al. [24] without notification of the period, ^†New tumor is defined as newly developed cancer separate to the treated PTMC. Two new tumors were reported by Li et al. [22] (2/168 [1.2%]) at 6 and 44.2 months after ablation, one by Zhou et al. [25] (1/36 [2.8%]) at 42 months after ablation, and one by Zhang et al. [24] (1/94 [1.1%]) without notification of the period, ^‡Rate of volume reduction of treated nodules 1 year after ablation, ^§Rate of volume reduction of treated nodules at last follow-up, ^∥Difference between surgery and ablation group; local recurrence, p = 0.98; new tumor, p = 0.85; LN metastasis, p = 0.65; distant metastasis, p = 0.90; rescue surgery, p = 0.62, ^¶Substantial between-study heterogeneity (I² = 58.8%). CI = confidence interval, F/U = mean follow-up period, LA = laser ablation, LN = lymph node, meta = metastasis, MWA = microwave ablation, Pt. = number of patients, PTMC = papillary thyroid microcarcinoma, RFA = radiofrequency ablation, VRR = volume reduction rate