Luddy, Mary Kate, Vetter, Rachel, Shank, Jessica et al. · The Journal of surgical research · 2021 · DOI
Some patients who have their entire thyroid removed experience lasting tiredness and fatigue after surgery, a condition called asthenia. This study followed 182 patients before and after thyroid surgery to measure their quality of life and fatigue levels over one year. Patients who had their entire thyroid removed were much more likely to develop asthenia (42%) compared to those who had only half removed (4%), especially if they had thyroid cancer.
This research documents a high prevalence of post-surgical chronic fatigue following total thyroidectomy, particularly in cancer patients—a finding relevant to ME/CFS researchers studying potential triggers and pathogenic mechanisms of acquired chronic fatigue. Understanding post-thyroidectomy asthenia may provide insights into surgical/stress-induced fatigue syndromes and their relationship to post-viral or post-infection fatigue conditions.
This study does not establish whether post-thyroidectomy asthenia is mechanistically identical to ME/CFS or post-viral fatigue syndromes; it is observational and cannot prove causation or rule out confounders such as radiation therapy, hormonal dysregulation, or psychosocial factors. The study also does not determine whether asthenia in this population meets diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS or whether it follows the pattern of post-exertional malaise characteristic of ME/CFS.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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