Introduction and Context
Ambulatory, or same-day, thyroid surgery has become increasingly common as surgical techniques, anesthesia, and postoperative monitoring have improved. But thyroidectomy remains a procedure with potentially serious complications, including neck bleeding, airway compromise, recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, and hypocalcemia. Because these events can occur after discharge, safe outpatient thyroid surgery depends on much more than a technically successful operation.
That is the central message of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) Multidisciplinary Consensus Statement on Ambulatory Thyroid Surgery, published in 2026 as an update to the ATA’s 2013 statement on outpatient thyroidectomy. The new document was issued because practice has evolved over the past decade and because newer evidence has helped clarify which patients are appropriate candidates, which operative choices matter most, and how discharge and rescue pathways should be organized.
