THE TREATMENT OF THYROTOXICOSIS

A comparative study on the results of 442 patients with hyperthyroidism from January 1960 to December 1979 was carried out and evaluated. The long-term (average 10.5 years) cure rate was 41.6%, 53.4% and 94.6% in three groups of antithyroid medication, radioactive iodine treatment and surgical procedure respectively. In the medication group, the recurrence rate (58.4%) was higher than that of the other two groups, while in the131I treatment group, the incidence of hypothyroidism was the highest (23.3%). We incline to the view that surgery is the treatment of choice for thyrotoxicosis even if those patients recurred after operation.