Despite an excellent prognosis, cervical lymph node (LN) metastases are common in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). The presence of metastasis is associated with an increased risk of locoregional recurrence, which significantly impairs quality of life and may decrease survival. Therefore, it has been an important determinant of the extent of lateral LN dissection in the initial treatment of PTC patients with lateral cervical metastasis. However, the optimal extent of therapeutic lateral neck dissection (ND) remains controversial. Optimizing the surgical extent of LN dissection is fundamental for balancing the surgical morbidity and oncological benefits of ND in PTC patients with lateral neck metastasis. We reviewed the currently available literature regarding the optimal extent of lateral LN dissection in PTC patients with lateral neck metastasis. Even in cases with suspicion of metastatic LN at the single lateral level or isolated metastatic lateral LN, the application of ND including all sublevels from IIa and IIb to Va and Vb may be overtreatment, due to the surgical morbidity. When there is no suspicion of LN metastasis at levels II and V, or when multilevel aggressive neck metastasis is not found, sublevel IIb and Va dissection may not be necessary in PTC patients with lateral neck metastasis. Thus consideration of the individualized optimal surgical extent of lateral ND is important when treating PTC patients with lateral cervical metastasis.