Role of surgery in the management of Graves' disease

Seventy-two patients, 50 women and 22 men, were operated on for Graves' disease. Their median age was 35 years. The indications for surgery included patients with large goitre, relapse after antithyroid drug (ATD) therapy, allergic reactions to ATD, non-compliance and finally an associated nodule with suspicion of carcinoma. Patients were rendered euthyroid with ATD before surgery and were pretreated with Lugol's iodine. Standard subtotal thyroidectomy was performed in 64 patients, total thyroidectomy in 7 patients, and one patient underwent a completion thyroidectomy after an initial subtotal thyroidectomy. The weight of the thyroid remnant on either side was estimated emperically between 3 g and 5 g. There was no postoperative death or thyrotoxic crisis. There was no case of permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve damage or hypoparathyroidism. Eight patients (11.1%) had temporary unilateral vocal cord palsy and 4 patients (5.5%) had temporary hypocalcemia. One patient (1.4%) developed recurrent hyperthyroidism. Postoperative transient hypothyroidism developed in 87.5% cases, all within the first postoperative year. The functional results at 2 years were as follows: Out of 47 cases followed 31 patients (65.9%) became euthyroid while 15 (31.9%) were still hypothyroid and requited long term substitutive treatment. Ophthalmopathy worsened in only one patient. Thyroidectomy has reasonable role in the management of Graves' disease, because the patients have had their diseases rapidly terminated, were hospitalised for an average period of only 3.5 days and have had no permanent functional insult except for hypothyroidism.