Liquid or soft-gel levothyroxine vs tablet levothyroxine in athyreotic adults after total thyroidectomy: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 1 Characteristics of the included studies

Ref.	Study design	Follow-up (weeks)	n (total)	Female (%)	Age (years)	BMI	Thyroid-stimulating hormone baseline	Malabsorption	Disease
Brancato et al[24], 2014	Retrospective cohort	14	53	94.3	45	26.8	3.04	35.9%	Thyroiditis (66%), thyroidectomy (26%), goiter (8%)
Negro et al[25], 2014	Prospective cohort	54	200	81	53	-	1.71	None	Surgical (29%) or autoimmune (71%)
Vita et al[26], 2014	Prospective cohort	27	24	75	56.2	-	4.1	100%	Primary hypothyroidism (58%) or DTC (42%)
Cappelli et al[27], 2017	RCT	54	102	78.4	49.4	24.1	0.28	None	DTC
Fallahi et al[28], 2016	Prospective cohort	54	21	81	51	24.4	7.6	None	Autoimmune thyroiditis (62%), nodular goiter (38%)
Lombardi et al[29], 2017	RCT	10	155	84.5	51.5	26.4	8	None	Benign diseases only
Fallahi et al[30], 2018	Prospective cohort	15	105	77	48	24.5	2.55	None	Thyroid cancer only (papillary/follicular)
Baratta et al[31], 2025	RCT	10	130	100	51.6	26.4	8	None	Thyroidectomized patients
Gatta et al[32], 2025	Retrospective cohort	13	275	78.2	53	25.7	1.2	27.6%	DTC (28%) vs benign (72%)

BMI: Body mass index; RCT: Randomized controlled trial; DTC: Differentiated thyroid cancer.