Liu N, Yang Y, Chen B, et al. - Provided that therapeutic central compartment neck dissection (CCND) is a well-established treatment for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) nodal metastases, but the extent to which therapeutic CCND should be performed remains controversial, researchers conducted this case-control study to examine the predictive risk factors for contralateral paratracheal lymph node metastasis (LNM) in unilateral cT1N1a or cT2N1a PTC. Demographic and pathological data were obtained from unilateral cT1N1a or cT2N1a PTC patients from January 2017 to March 2019. The inclusion criteria were met by 237 patients. The predictors for contralateral paratracheal LNM in unilateral cT1N1a or cT2N1a PTC were male sex, T2 disease, a tumor located near the isthmus or inferior pole, aggressive pathology, pretracheal LNM and > 5 metastatic lymph nodes. Such data can be useful in determining surveillance targets or in designing therapeutic strategies for CCND patients.