Graves Disease and Eye Operation?

[H3LL]

I have a friend here that has had Graves Disease and is considering an eye operation. She has had no other related operation.

Medication has been effective and to me her eyes look fine although she assures me that they were not.

Now I'm no doctor and I'm not ignorant either, but this one has left me unable to point her in a useful direction, so maybe others here can help.

To me and eye op' is the last resort and there seems to be many avenues to proceed down before even considering such and from what I can see it is quite a high risk procedure.

Also it is not exactly clear what form the op' will take. I don't think she is clear in her mind herself.

Added to this is the fact it's in China and not the UK although some hospitals here in my city are top class as I can verify from personal experience.

Here are some links I looked at:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/srchcont.asp?src=graves+disease&op=mm

http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlinepl...R1=server1&PARAMETER=Graves+Disease&x=60&y=14

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk:8080/kb...sdirect&mt=1&sb=0&nh=10&image.x=12&image.y=14

http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simpleprocess.cfm?querystring=Graves+Disease&x=12&y=7

http://search.netdoktor.com:8765/qu...pw=650&la=en&nh=10&qt=Graves+Disease&x=6&y=11

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3029

http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-1039794129

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3355

none of them have really helped.

Any advice?

 

[Deetee]

The eyes in Graves can become rather protruberant, due to a bulking up of the fatty tissues behind the eye ball. It is recognised that this does not resolve well, even when drug treatment effectively "cures" the thyroid overactivity.

I assume she suffers from this and is wishing to have what is known as an orbital decompression, which is quite a major step. If the problem is merely a minimally cosmetic one of slight eyeball protrusion it is not really worth pursuing, but the best thing would be for her to discuss it with her practitioner/thyroid specialist who is treating her.

Sometimes other strategies might work like steroids, or radiotherapy. I have no personal/specialised knowledge to base any of the above comments on, however.

 

[Phaycops]

I agree with Deetee. I had Grave's disease that was successfully treated with drugs, but my eyes were never very bad. I did read a lot about the disease when I was first diagnosed, and I found out that people's eyes can "bug out" to the extent where the eyelids could not close. I think in this kind of extreme situation, surgery can make a positive difference, but if the problem is mainly cosmetic, well, it seems like an awfully delicate area to be poking around. Risk-benefit analysis, you know?

 

[H3LL]

..... Risk-benefit analysis, you know?

My view exactly. Her eyes seem fine to me. She is actually quite pretty.

 

[Deetee]

OTOH, if her eyes looked like this I would say surgery was definitely advisable.....