The incidence of thyroid diseases is increasing year by year. Surgery is one of the most important treatment options for thyroid diseases, in which, the intraoperative protection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and identification of the parathyroid glands are always the important issues. The promotion of neural monitoring has provided strong support for intraoperative localization and protection of the recurrent laryngeal nerves, but the intraoperative identification of parathyroid glands is still a challenge for thyroid surgeons. Based on literature review, the authors extract the development in methods for intraoperative identification of parathyroid glands, so as to provide support for rapid intraoperative identification of parathyroid glands for surgeons.