Radiation therapy for Graves' disease.

We used radiation therapy (a total of 2,000 rads) to treat 14 patients (three men and 11 women, ranging in age from 27 to 72 years) with Graves' disease. Three of these patients had refused to take corticosteroids and the other 11 had failed to respond to them, had experienced side effects, or had other contraindications to their use. After follow-up periods ranging from six months to three years, soft-tissue inflammation was reduced in 13 of the 14 patients. All but two patients showed a decrease in proptosis of 1 to 3 mm. Myopathy showed the least improvement. Although we noted transient eyelid erythema, there were no permanent sequelae and none of the patients has had a recurrence of the inflammation.