Quality of Life After Thyroidectomy for Hashimoto Disease in Patients With Persistent Symptoms

To determine whether thyroidectomy improves quality of life in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis with persistent symptoms despite biochemical euthyroidism.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted of patients undergoing thyroidectomy for Hashimoto thyroiditis at our institution between 2014 and 2018. The following variables were collected: age, race, body mass index, preoperative symptoms, preoperative thyroid peroxidase antibody titer, thyroglobulin antibody titer, thyroid-stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, specimen weight, and histologic presence of thyroiditis. Outcomes included general health score on the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health and responses to a questionnaire addressing postoperative disease management.

A total of 19 patients were included in the study, 18 of whom were female with a mean age of 48 years. The majority of patients were Caucasian. There were no significant differences between the postoperative general health scores of the patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis and scores from a healthy control population (66.9 vs 74.1; 95% CI: -16.9 to +2.5, P = .16). There were also no differences between groups within the 7 SF-36 subscores. Elevation in preoperative thyroperoxidase antibody correlated with lower reported postoperative energy levels (r = -0.63, P = .016) and emotional well-being (r = -.55, P = .041); 87.5% of respondents reported being moderately or extremely happy with their decision to proceed with surgery.

Quality of life in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis who undergo thyroidectomy is equivalent to the general population, and the majority are satisfied with surgery. Thyroidectomy is a consideration for patients with persistent symptoms despite optimization on medical therapy.