This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

NORMAN W. THOMPSON, MD; WILLIAM J. FRY, MD

AMA Arch Surg. 1964;89(3):512-516.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Thyroid crisis or storm was at one time a serious and not infrequent complication of thyroidectomy for hyperthyroidism. In 1934, Ransom²⁷ reported 37 fatal cases occurring within a six-year period, accounting for 70% of the deaths associated with thyroid surgery at the University of Michigan prior to 1930. Reported mortality rates have varied from 50% to 100% amongst those developing the syndrome. Preoperative administration of iodine and antithyroid drugs have, however, reduced thyroid crisis to a relative rarity.^20,25 Furthermore, when it does occur, newer therapeutic measures have reduced mortality significantly. Most recently this has been reported to be 25%.³⁸

In the past ten years only two patients have developed thyroid crisis postoperatively at the University of Michigan Hospital. These two patients survived and form the basis of this report.

McArthur¹⁹ has defined thyroid crisis as a life endangering exacerbation of thyrotoxicosis. The clinical picture depends on . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
ANN ARBOR, MICH

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Dr. Thompson), Associate Professor of Surgery (Dr. Fry).; Department of Surgery, University of Michigan.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication March 14, 1964.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?