Brauer PR, Burkey BB, Reddy CA, et al. - Using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database between 2005 and 2017, researchers performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study to evaluate risk factors and non-thyroid specific postoperative complications for thyroid lobectomy compared with total thyroidectomy. Patients who had not been seen by an otolaryngologist or a general surgeon and who had unclear demographic data were disqualified. In total, 106,915 patients were analyzed, 64,763 total thyroidectomies and 42,152 lobectomies. Patients in this cohort who had a history of hypertension, a malignant pathology, and smoked were at higher risk for reoperation. Conversely, diabetes and BMI did not impact the rate of reoperation when evaluating total thyroidectomy and lobectomy. Unplanned intubation, urinary tract infection (UTI), and superficial surgical site infection were the most frequent non-thyroid specific complications in total thyroidectomy. The most common complications of thyroid lobectomy were superficial surgical site infection and UTI. Thyroid surgeons should consider these findings during pre-operative planning to help reduce patient risk.