[Follow-up of a population of patients who underwent partial thyroidectomy for benign thyroid pathology]

Natural history of partial thyroidectomy for thyroid disease has been studied in a population of 1196 consecutive cases surgically treated from 1977 to 1982. Follow-up analysis on this population (from six to eleven years) was carried out for appearance of recurrence. Generally, the recurrence incidence was small (only 9.9% of total population) but high frequency was observed for Graves' disease (46%) and lymphocytic chronic thyroiditis (21%). The substitutive/suppressive therapy administration did not influence recurrence of disease. Our results suggest that suppressive therapy does not modify the natural course of non cancerous thyroid pathology residual to partial thyroidectomy.