**3.1. "Meticulous capsular dissection" in thyroid lobectomy**

How to preserve the IPTG during the thyroid lobectomy, a concept "meticulous capsular dissection" was put forward by NW Thompson in 1973 [11], and further explanation was given by Attie and other scholars [12]. The protection of the parathyroid glands and to the recurrent laryngeal nerve is achieved by using capsular dissection, hugging the gland and dividing the tertiary branches (i.e., the third order of division) of the vessels while dissecting the parathyroid glands with their vascular pedicles free from the thyroid surface, with minimal exposure of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and disturbance of its blood supply (**Figure 5**).
