1 Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston City Hospital, Boston
An 11-year-old boy with an 18-month history of incompletely treated thyrotoxicosis was hospitalized because of progressive weakness. During his first hospital day he suddenly decompensated, with signs of acute thyroid storm. He responded dramatically to intravenously and then orally administered propranolol which controlled his hyperthyroid symptomatology until propylthiouracil could take effect. This is the first reported description of the use of propranolol in the treatment of thyroid storm in childhood thyrotoxicosis.
Submitted on August 24, 1973