The meta-analysis system was used to evaluate the efficacy and safety of microwave ablation and traditional open surgery in the treatment of papillary thyroid microcarcinomas.

The search strategy, the principle of inclusion and screening of the literature were determined.A literature search of Pubmed (Medline), Cochrane Library, China Biomedical Literature Database (Sinomed), CNKI, and Wanfang Database was performed for microwave ablation treatment of papillary thyroid microcarcinomas in randomized controlled studies. The experimental group was treated with microwave ablation and the control group was treated with traditional open surgery. The search time span is from April 2017 to April 2020. Meta analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 statistical software.

A total of 10 RCTs were included, with 1 307 subjects, including 669 in the experimental group and 638 in the control group. The results showed that the differences between the microwave ablation group and the traditional open surgery group were statistically significant in terms of operative conditions, postoperative complication rates, thyroid hormone levels, and inflammatory factor levels. In contrast, the advantages of microwave ablation in the above aspects are more obvious, and the tumor volume changes are also very obvious.

Microwave ablation has the characteristics of minimally invasiveness, fast recovery, high aesthetics, and few surgical complications in the treatment of papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. However, the 10 RCTs are all studies in the past 3 years with short follow-up time, and the long-term effect remains to be confirmed by future large-sample, long-termfollow-up RCT studies.