Treatment of Hyperthyroidism With Radioactive Iodine.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Kearns has treated 747 patients for hyperthyroidism using radioactive iodine and has reported his impressions in this attractively published little book. Although there are numerous other studies of comparable patients (some with considerably greater numbers), none the less, large carefully treated and observed series constitute a natural resource that should be intelligently studied to provide definite answers to the problem of what is the best modality of therapy. The fact that arguments still go on indicates the need for such reports.

Unfortunately, this book does not review the author's clinical material in a convincing manner. A statement such as "Our incidence of patients developing hypothyroidism has been very low..." is not helpful and substantially adds nothing to our knowledge. The author advocates the use of radioactive iodine to patients of all ages with very few exceptions. Although this is not the usual opinion, I