Chronic Treatment of Toxic Diffuse Goiter

As widely accepted as are surgery and radioiodine in the treatment of toxic diffuse goiter there still remains a group of patients in which results are not satisfactory or the therapy is not applicable. Among these are the patients with postoperative recurrence or progressive exophthalmos, children for whom neither form of treatment yields consistently good results,^1,2 those under 40 and those with some form of chemical block for whom I¹³¹ is either contraindicated or thwarted and surgery is unacceptable, and those who qualify for either form of treatment but refuse to accept it. Treatment of this group with the antithyroid drugs alone has achieved desired results in no more than 50% to 60%; for while thyroxin formation is blocked by these agents, the stimulus from the anterior pituitary remains. Thus relapse may follow when treatment is discontinued, and thyroid hyperplasia continues undiminished.

The suppressive action of desiccated thyroid