[Surgical treatments in recurrent Graves' disease]

Seventy-six patients with clinical diagnosis Graves' disease, reoperated in the Clinic of Endocrine Surgery over the period 1985 through 1996, are analyzed. Distribution by gender and age: 3 men with mean age 55.33 y (range 49-60), and 73 women at mean age 39.67 years (range 19-69). The scope of secondary operation includes: thyroidectomy--3 cases, subtotal thyroid resection--55, lobectomy with contralateral subtotal resection--2, and unilateral predominantly subtotal resection--16 cases. It is the purpose of the study to assay the underlying causes of surgical relapse in Graves' disease, its relationship to the radicalism of the intervention, thyrostatic therapy duration, and early and late postoperative complications associated with its removal. In 16 cases (21.05%) secondary operative intervention is done against the background of enhanced production of thyroid hormones. A short 3 to 6-month thyrostatic course precedes the reoperation in eleven patients (14.47%). Unilateral thyroid resection is resorted to in 16 patients (21.05%). Postoperative hypothyroidism is observed in 6 cases (7.89%). A relapse of Graves' disease after reoperation is noted in 3 instances (3.94%). Six patients of the series reviewed (7.89%) develop postoperative hypoparathyroidism: transitory in four (5.26%) and permanent in two (2.63%). In the early postoperative period, paresis of n recurrents (n laryngeus inferior) develops in 2 patients (2.63%): left- and rightside, one each respectively. In terms of morphological patterns, the ensuing relapses after surgery in Graves' disease patients portray the initial pathological process: some cases show a tendency of nodular adenomatous hyperplasia development, sporadic cases form follicular adenomas, and in 14 cases (18.42%) lymphoid infiltrates predominate with a tendency to be converted into Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The presence of enhanced proliferative response induced by a variety of factors, therapeutic ones inclusive, is the basic morphological factor of the recurrent conditions described.