Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Graves’ disease represents an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland, which therapeutic management is controversy. The aim of our study is to discuss, after a review of the literature, the role of surgery, especially total thyroidectomy, in the treatment of Graves’ disease.

Patients and methods: We conducted a retrospective study of medical records of 39 patients who underwent surgery for Graves’ disease at the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery of Farhat Hached University Hospital during 15 years (from 01/01/2001 to 31/12/2015).

Results: Thirty nine patients were operated for Graves’ disease, 23 women and 16 men, aged between 13 and 58 years old. All our patients had thyroid goiter and hyperthyroidism, treated with anti thyroid drugs and β blockers. Seventeen of them had Graves’ orbitopathy. Our operative indications were dominated by the failure of the medical treatment (72% of cases). All our patients had a total thyroidectomy. Seven patients developed post operative complications: transient hypocalcemia in six cases and recurrent laryngeal nerve paresis in one case. All our patients received thyroid hormone replacement after surgery with favorable evolution.

Conclusion: Total thyroidectomy is the more efficient radical method for treating patients with Graves’ disease. It is not accompanied by a higher rate of complications than subtotal thyroidectomy.