Open AccessDefinitive treatment of Graves’ disease in children and adolescents
Author(s) -
Aleksandra Król,
Agnieszka Czarniecka,
Barbara Jarząb
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
endokrynologia polska
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.413
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 2299-8306
pISSN - 0423-104X
DOI - 10.5603/ep.a2021.0092
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , graves' disease , concomitant , adverse effect , thyroidectomy , antithyroid drugs , disease , radioactive iodine , complication , thyroid , surgery
Graves' disease (GD) is the most common cause of paediatric hyperthyroidism. In children and adolescents, the clinical GD course is different from that seen in adults, due to low remission rate and high prevalence of adverse events related to treatment with antithyroid drugs (ATDs). Most patients in this group require definitive therapy. As in adults, there are 2 treatment options- thyroid ablation with radioactive iodine (RAI) or surgery with preferred procedure of total thyroidectomy (TT). The choice of definitive therapy depends on many important factors such as the child's age, effectiveness of the first-line ATD treatment, presence of ATD side effects, presence of large goitre or thyroid nodules, and concomitant diseases. The following paper provides the current guidelines on GD management in children and compares the efficacy of both definitive treatment methods as well as the acute and long-term complication rates, which must be taken into account when choosing the optimal therapeutic option.