Show that body of 0 f you r s py 7 JAMES BARTON at D results in thyroid operations 0 ONE NE of the problems facing both patient and physician in goiter or thyroid ailments Is whether an operation should be performed at once or whether treatment by rest iodine xray or other methods should first be tried now no one likes the idea ot of an operation because there Is the anesthetic the time in hospital with its expense and the danger of the operation naturally then if all this can be avoided it would seem like good sense to walt wait however physicians always keep in mind that the extra juice from the thyroid gland makes the heart beat more rapidly all the time and this extra work together with poisons in ID the system can so damage the heart that rest and other forms of treatment are of no avail therefore we now find that the condition of the heart itself and the strength of its moscu muscular 1 ar walls in pumping the blood Is ti the e factor that influences the physician whether or not to advise operation in fact many surgeons favor operation even when heart symptoms are mild what Is this operation the operation consists in the removal of a large part but not all of the thyroid gland in the neck in former times this operation was considered so dangerous that patients traveled hundreds and often thousands of miles to have it performed by some renowned today in practically every hospital surgeons are performing this operation with splendid results and with a very low death rate thus dr J tie de J pemberton in journal of surgery and obstetrics reports a death rate of less than I 1 per cent what about the results obtained by operation statistics from kochems Ko chers clinic in vienna and mayos clinic rochester tylnn give 80 86 per cent of satisfactory results after operation in serious cases of the severe type of goiter the thought then Is that where rest and other forms of treatment n t a are re not giving results in these thyroid cases when the heart Is affected the earlier the case Is turned over to the surgeon the less danger there Is from the operation sometimes the operation Is performed because the patient cant spare the time required by the rest treatment |