Long-term outcome of treatments for Graves disease in the children and adolescent population.

Background: Several studies were conducted over the years to find a significant association between non-surgical therapies such as Antithyroid Drug (ATD) Therapy and Radio-iodo therapy (RIT) with Graves' disease (GD) remission and relapse. However, these investigations did not have a specific focus on the age category of children and adolescents. Hence, this Research is performed to assess the association of non-surgical therapy (ATD and RIT) with Graves' disease (GD) remission and relapse in the children and adolescent population.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and clinical trials were carried out.

Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, and SCOPUS from their inception till April 2022 was performed for studies stating an association between ATD therapy and GD remission and relapse in participants 1-17 years old. The random-effects model was used in the meta-analysis to provide a pooled proportion of both primary outcomes. The quality and each study were assessed using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS).

Result: From 6195 studies searched from the databases, only 16 relevant articles remained after a detailed evaluation. These studies, having a total of 2557 patients aged 5-17 years, were involved in the analysis with a pooled estimate showing a significant association of ATD therapy with GD remission (Estimate: 0.400, 95% Confidence interval: 0.265-0.535; I^2 = 98.16%) and with GD relapse (Estimate: 0.359, 95% Confidence interval: 0.257-0.461; I^2 = 98.26%). Subgroup analyses were conducted to assess the remission rate of different therapies suggesting that antithyroid drugs play a significant role in the remission of the patients. All included studies were classified as moderate quality.

Conclusion: Following meta-analysis suggested that the ATD used in the analysis is effective in remitting GD in the children and adolescents population. Nevertheless, long-term RIT therapy and thyroidectomy leads to hypothyroidism. Still, large-sample, and high-quality studies targeting ATDs' use in children and adolescents with long-term surveillance of prognosis are needed.