Bilateral exorbitism revealing thymic hyperplasia: Case report and review of the literature

Abstract

Introduction:Graves' thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease, commonly associated with other autoimmune disorders, such as myasthenia gravis, autoimmune gastritis, Type 1 diabetes, vitiligo, and Addison's disease. There is a welldocumented association between Graves' disease and thymus hyperplasia. The knowledge of this association makes it possible to avoid a risky and unnecessary surgery of a thymus mass in patients with Graves' disease. Case Report: We report the case of a patient with bilateral exophthalmos. The biological and radiological assessment was in favor of a grave disease associated with thymus hyperplasia. A medical treatment was administered with a favorable evolution. There were no sign of malignancy in the follow up exam. Conclusion: Knowledge of the association between Graves' disease and thymus hyperplasia is necessary. For there is some authors that preconize thymus surgery in cases of resistant grave disease. The favorable evolution under medical treatment makes it possible to avoid unnecessary, even dangerous, thymus mass surgery in patients with Graves' disease by proposing a simple radiological monitoring.