Acute suppurative thyroiditis is a relatively rare disease, since suppuration does not always follow acute thyroiditis. Acute thyroiditis is an inflammatory process, usually due to infection, in a previously normal thyroid gland. In contradistinction is strumitis, an inflammatory process, usually due to infection, in a nodular goiter. In cases in which suppuration does occur, the degree of subsequent metabolic disturbance depends on the extent of cellular destruction as well as the resultant fibrosis.1 Awareness of these deficiency effects is important in the follow-up management of such patients, since subsequent hypofunction of the thyroid is likely to occur.
Ensuing damage to the thyroid gland has particular significance in young children, in whom adequate thyroid function is essential for normal growth and mental development.2 Thyroid hypofunction early reveals itself in terms of decreased pulse rate, decreased metabolic rate in the resting state and a decrease in the blood iodine.3 In children, later