Objective To evaluate whether the classification of parathyroid can be used to evaluate how difficult it is that the parathyroid glands get preserved in situ during thyroid surgery. Methods Clinical date were retrospectively collected from the patients with thyroid nodules, who had undergone the initial thyroidectomy in the Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 2014 and June 2016. The number of parathyroid glands was counted according to the classification of parathyroid. It got comparative analysis that the rates of parathyroid glands in situ among the different types. Results A total of 996 patients were included in the study, and 3 269 pieces of parathyroid glands were identified. The mean number of parathyroid identification was 3.3 pieces. These parathyroid glands consisted of 77.5% (2 532/3 269) type A and 22.5% (737/3 269) type B. The rate of parathyroid glands in situ was 77.1% (1 951/2 532) in type A, and 80.7% (595/737) in type B, the difference was significant (P=0.03). And the rate of parathyroid glands in situ in type A1 was significantly higher than that in type A2 (80.5%vs 21.4%,P<0.001). The parathyroid of type A3 couldn’t get preserved in situ. The rate of superior parathyroid glands in situ in type B1 was higher than that in type A1 (97.5%vs 93.7,P<0.01). But the rate of inferior parathyroid glands in type B1 was closed to that in type A1 (62.2%vs 65.7%,P=0.23), and both the rates were significant less than that in type B2 (86.0%) and in type B3 (90.2%),PA1vs B2=0.001,PA1vs B3<0.001,PB1vs B2=0.004,PB1vs B3=0.001. Conclusion The classification of parathyroid can be used to evaluate effectively how difficult it is that the parathyroid glands get preserved in situ during thyroid surgery.