[Current status and the goal of surgical treatment for Graves' disease]

Surgical therapy is an established and effective therapy for Graves' disease. Application of this therapy, however, became less often recently, because of its negative features such as need for admission, scar formation and possible complications. For patients with Graves' disease surgical therapy is the only available therapy if they are associated with thyroid cancer, or if they are pregnant and antithyroid drugs are contraindicated. Recently, indication of the surgical therapy for this disease tends to be limited to special or difficult cases. Here, we analyze trend in our practice in Kuma Hospital, and explain change in our surgical goal, surgical procedures and results.