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Hashimoto disease is a chronic autoimmune thyroiditis that afflicts women more commonly than men. To determine whether thyroidectomy benefits patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis who still have symptoms despite receiving medication to normalize thyroid function, investigators randomized 150 euthyroid patients (age range, 18–79; 137 women) with persistent Hashimoto-related symptoms and serum anti–thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibody titers >1000 IU/mL to thyroidectomy plus standard medical therapy or medical therapy alone.
During 18 months' follow-up, no changes were seen in the medically managed group, whereas the surgery group experienced decreasing likelihood of chronic fatigue (from 82% to 35%) and improved quality of life. Significant b…