How is Graves disease treated medically?
The selection of treatment will include factors such as age, degree of illness, and personal preferences. Generally speaking, from least invasive to most invasive, the treatments include: • Anti-thyroid drugs that inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone (20-30% effective, often used to control mild cases) • Radioactive iodine (I-131), which destroys part or all of the thyroid gland and renders it incapable of overproducing thyroid hormone • Surgery, in which most of the thyroid gland is removed, renders it incapable of overproducing thyroid hormone.The latter two treatments result in a 90-95% remission rate of the disease. In a few cases the treatments must be repeated. In all cases lifetime follow-up laboratory studies must be done, and in almost all cases lifetime replacement thyroid hormone must be taken. What are the complications of the disease? Graves’ disease usually responds to treatment and, after the initial period of hyperthyroidism, is relatively easy
