This paper concerns thin presentations of knots K in closed 3-manifolds M 3 which produce S 3 by Dehn surgery, for some slope γ . If M does not have a lens space as a connected summand, we first prove that all such thin presentations, with respect to any spine of M have only local maxima. If M is a lens space and K has an essential thin presentation with respect to a given standard spine (of lens space M ) with only local maxima, then we show that K is a 0-bridge or 1-bridge braid in M ; furthermore, we prove the minimal intersection between K and such spines to be at least three, and finally, if the core of the surgery K γ yields S 3 by r -Dehn surgery, then we prove the following inequality: |r| ≤ 2g, where g is the genus of K γ .