Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy of Dunhill operation (hemithyroidectomy plus contralateral subtotal resection) in treatment of bilateral multinodular goiter. Methods: The clinical data of 58 patients undergoing Dunhill operation and 60 patients undergoing bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy from January 2011 to January 2017 in the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were confirmed to have bilateral multinodular goiter by intraoperative pathological diagnosis. Results: The preoperative data showed no significant difference between the two groups of patients (all P>0.05). In Dunhill operation group compared with bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy group, the average operative time was significantly prolonged (95.41 min vs. 52.48 min, P=0.000) and the incidence of hypocalcemia on the first postoperative day was significantly increased (12.1% vs. 1.7%, P=0.031), while there were no significant differences in the intraoperative blood loss, number of cases receiving parathyroid autotransplantation, incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, incidence of hypocalcemia on the third postoperative day and incidence of hypoparathyroidism between the two groups (all P>0.05). The recurrence rate in Dunhill operation group was significantly lower than that in bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy group during follow-up period (P=0.027). Conclusion: Dunhill operation is safe and effective in treatment of multinodular goiter, and also can effectively reduce the postoperative recurrence of the disease. So, it is recommended to be used in clinical practice.