[The results of total thyroidectomy in Basedow's disease. The authors' personal experience of 180 cases].

The therapeutic guidelines of Basedow (Graves') disease are based on three different approaches: medical treatment with anti-thyroid drugs, radio-iodine therapy and surgery. This choice has increasing consensus for the great improvement of the techniques, which at the moment are practically free of mortality risks, and have very low morbidity incidence, as well as for its positive influence on the course of the Graves' ophthalmopathy. For authors' study 180 patients affected with Graves disease, who have undergone total thyroidectomy, were retrospectively enrolled. The results show that hyperthyroidism symptoms are almost completely cured in most of the subjects, with a very low rate of complications as related to nervous (ricorrential) and parathyroid gland function. Furthermore, total thyroidectomy has resulted to have a positive impact in the clinical course of Graves' ophthalmopathy, particularly regarding some aspects of the eyes involvement, which have a dramatic effect in the "quo ad valitudinem" prognosis of these patients.