[Surgical therapy of Basedow's disease]

The authors, in the light of the data of the literature, study the problem of the surgical treatment of Basedow disease. Besides those who suggest the total thyroidectomy as an ultimately curative intervention, most of surgeons prefer the subtotal thyroidectomy. However, the result of such operation is doubtful as to postoperative hypo- and hyperthyroidism, due to the operativeness of factors of not only biological, but also technical nature. In order to make the therapeutical result as satisfactory as possible, the literature suggests some particular surgical solutions, such as ligature of thyroid artery, limited subtotal thyroidectomy and modified subtotal thyroidectomy, which seem to obtain satisfactory results from the clinical standpoint.