PATIENTS AND METHODS
papillary thyroid carcinoma, PTMC
LYMPH NODE METASTASIS, THYROID NODULES, PAPILLARY THYROID CARCINOMA
This study started in January 2021, and by June 2021, 276 patients presented at the outpatient department with suspected diagnosis of PTMC. Both types of operation had the same selection criteria: no history of neck surgery, age between 18 and 60 years old, and all patients who underwent an ultrasound‐guided fine needle aspiration suspecting papillary thyroid carcinoma with unilateral malignant nodule <1 cm. The central and lateral lymph nodes were assessed by ultrasound and contrast medium computed tomography before surgery, and any patients who suspected lymph node metastasis were excluded. Patients were 1:1 randomized to the two groups. The 1:1 randomization technique was used to divide the participants into two groups: one participant was assigned to the GTET group, and the next was assigned to the MGTET group regardless of their baseline characteristics. This was done to avoid the surgeons getting more prone to perform one surgical technique than the other. The surgical morbidity of both techniques was assumed to be the same during the study. All the operations were performed by one surgeon (SWZ). 140 patients underwent GTET or M‐GTET. The first 20 cases of both GTET and MGTET were excluded from the analysis to diminish the learning curve effect, and 50 (50%) patients had GTET, and 50 (50%) patients had undergone M‐GTET. All patients had a follow‐up of at least 12 months postsurgery. Only patients with PTMC were selected for our study since 90% of patients newly diagnosed with thyroid nodules are clinically insignificant,Flowchart of the study design.