Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of central lymph node dissection on papillary thyroid carcinoma patients' parathyroid function. Methods Clinical data about 127 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma who underwent total thyroidectomy by the same operation group during their hospitalization from December 2007 to November 2011 in the department of general surgery of Chinese PLA general hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results The incidence of hypoparathyroidism, subnormal of 24 hours postoperative intact parathyroid hormone and 24 hours postoperative serum calcium in experimental group (with central lymph node dissection) were signifcantly higher than those in the control group (without lymph node dissection) (P< 0.05). There were no permanent hypoparathyroidism cases in both of the two groups. Conclusion Central lymph node dissection increases the incidence of postoperative hypoparathyroidism in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients, however, it does not increase the incidence of postoperative permanent hypoparathyroidism. Surgeon in this operation should pay attention to avoiding direct damage to the parathyroid and also to the protection of the blood supply of parathyroid.