With the rapid increase in incidence of thyroid cancer and the volume of thyroidectomy, the demands for ambulatory thyroidectomy are growing, where the processes of admission, surgery and discharge are completed within 24 h. At present, ambulatory thyroidectomy mode has been undertaken at a few advanced medical institutions in China and other countries, which is considered as an advanced management mode, owning the advantages of being safe, high-efficient and convenient as well as reducing the length of hospital stay and hospitalization costs, and improving the patients’ satisfaction under strict indication criteria. However, the substantive development and popularization of the ambulatory thyroidectomy mode will be confronted with many difficulties and problems under our existing health care system and doctor-patient relationship conditions, such as surgery complications, health insurance policy, hospital management system, postoperative recovery management, medical document writing and medical ethics. So, ambulatory thyroidectomy is currently only suitable for being conducted as clinical research at thyroid centers with sufficient surgical experience under reliable conditions.