Differential utilization of thyroid lobectomy after the 2015 American Thyroid Association guideline update.

Background: The 2015 American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines added thyroid lobectomy (TL) as the appropriate treatment for low-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). We aimed to investigate the population-level factors that influence the utilization of TL.

Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was queried for all DTC patients fitting low-risk criteria as defined by the ATA.