Surgical treatment of hyperthyroidism

The most important problems of hyperthyroidism surgery are: the correct indication of operation, the choice of the best moment for operation and at last the extension of the resection. The authors experience include 365 patients with hyperthyroidism; 201 of them had monolateral autonomous nodules, 82 had diffuse multinodular goitre and 79 had Graves disease. In the first group of patients surgical treatment was total extracapsular isthmo-lobectomy, in the second group was performed subtotal thyroidectomy and in the third group was almost performed near-total thyroidectomy. Three relapses were found: two of that regarded patients with autonomous function nodule and one in patient with Graves disease. In 201 patients with toxic monolateral hyperfunction of the node, an extracapsular isthmo-lobectomy was performed. In the greater part of the 82 multinodular goiter cases a sub-total thyroidectomy was performed, as well as in 79 patients with Graves disease. Among the 3 recidive cases of hyperthyroidism (0.8%) one was recorded in a patient with Graves disease, (after subtotal thyroidectomy) and two in patients with hyperfunction of the node, (after isthmo-lobectomy). The authors justify the low incidence of recurrence by the choice of large extension of resection without a great number of complications.