Operation for hyperthyroidism. Methods and rationale

Five hundred patients with hyperthyroidism underwent operation between 1970 and 1984. Sixty-nine percent had Graves' disease, 19 percent had toxic thyroid adenoma, and 12 percent had multinodular toxic goiter. Good results were achieved in the 275 patients most recently treated. These results may be attributed to the following: good personal contact between the surgeon and the patient at the first meeting, 1 month of preoperative management with carbimazole and propranolol without interruption of work, operation adapted to the type of goiter, and treatment of postoperative tachycardia by propranolol. The mean duration of hospital stay was 5 days. Sequelae were rare. In the patients with Graves' disease, results at 2 years were as follows: 74 percent of operated patients were euthyroid, 23 percent required substitutive treatment, and surgical treatment failed or early relapse occurred in 3 percent. There were no recurrences after operation in patients with solitary or multinodular toxic goiter, but 30 percent of the former and 98 percent of the latter had to be treated with L-thyroxine. Seventy-two percent of the patients who presented with atrial fibrillation had return of normal cardiac rhythm after operation.