Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

TOTAL THYROIDECTOMY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIFFUSE TOXIC GOITER*

1949; Oxford University Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1210/jcem-9-10-1048

1945-7197

Angela Scott, Paul M. Ramey,

Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

IT is the purpose of this paper to present our experience with total thyroidectomy in the management of diffuse toxic goiter. This report reviews a series of 280 patients operated on by one-stage procedures during the fourteen-year period from 1935 to 1949. We feel that total thyroidectomy offers a rational surgical approach to the problem and that it may eliminate certain inadequacies of subtotal thyroidectomy. In 1939, Scott (1) presented before this Association a preliminary report on 71 total thyroidectomies, wherein he outlined the reasons which justified the procedure. We believe these statements to be just as applicable today as then and wish to recall the following points: Many years ago, Henry Plummer (2) pointed out that the manifestations of exophthalmic goiter appeared to be due to a qualitatively abnormal secretion rather than to a mere excess of a normal thyroid secretion. Apparently little attention has been paid to this early premise. However, we still do not know the cause of diffuse toxic goiter and today, we, as did Plummer, can only speculate as to the true etiology of the disease.