Objective To evaluate the impact of total thyroidectomy on health-related quality of life （HRQOL） in patients with nodular goiter. Methods The patients who underwent total thyroidectomy from Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2011 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed with regard to the quality of life （total thyroidectomy group）. The patients with similar demographic features who underwent hemithyroidectomy during the same period were matched as control （hemi-thyroidectomy group）. The validated HRQOL instrument， which was the Euro quality of life-5D （EQ-5D）， was applied to measure the HRQOL. Comparison of HRQOL in patients of 2 groups was performed， meanwhile， the data of total thyroidectomy group was compared with data of normal population who were obtained from The Forth National Health Survey. Results There were 26 and 28 valid questionnaires returned for the total thyroidectomy group and hemithyroi-dectomy group respectively. The demographic features of patients in 2 groups were comparable. No significant variancecould be found between the 2 groups that there were no significant differences on the mobility， self-care， usual activities，pain/discomfort， anxiety/depression， and visual analogous scales （P＞0.05）. Furthermore， no significant differences in HRQOL were found in EQ-5D questionnaire compared with normal population derived from The Forth National Health Survey （P＞0.05）， except that there were more patients complained of moderate and severe pain/discomfort in the total thyroidectomy group 〔30.8% （8/26） vs.9.2% （16 330/177 501）， P＜0.01〕. Conclusion Total thyroidectomy appears to have little impact on the quality of life in the patients with nodular goiter.