Surgery for Graves disease in childhood and adolescence

Children and adolescents with thyroid disorders are predominantly treated by pediatricians and pediatric endocrinologists. Surgery for thyroid disorders still represents the third frequent operation in adults in Germany, but is seldomly indicated in children. Thus children and adolescents make up for 1.3% of all our patients and of these 89 patients only 21 (23.6%) suffered from Graves disease. Nevertheless surgery for Graves disease in children and adolescence is recommended because medical therapy has proven a high rate of recurrences in children and because radioiodine is only reluctantly applied to children, at least in Germany.