In reply
We appreciate the interest and comments of Drs Sauerland and Korenkov regarding our recently published article1 and thank them for their additional search for prospective comparative studies on LigaSure in thyroidectomy. Although their comments overall are relevant and important to the topic discussed, they may have ignored the fact that the 4 trials they mentioned did not meet with our reported search strategy. Two were not from search databases,2,3 1 was formally published later than the latest searching date,4 and 1 did not match search terms, neither by key words nor Medical Subject Headings terms.5 Nevertheless, all these studies should be eligible for our meta-analysis if the search databases, terms, and date were broadened and extended.