Close, but no cigar

“Double, double, toil and trouble: fire burn and cauldron bubble…”

Macbeth

A recent blog about thyroid pathology got me thinking. Let me tell you a story. I was taught to prepare patients for thyroidectomy with Lugol’s iodine. It decreases the risk of thyroid storm and reduces vascularity of the gland. The dosing was like something out of a Shakespearian play, two drops of the mixture in a third of a glass of milk, three times a day, for a week but never longer. Before Beta blockers and Imidazole drugs, Lugol’s was a lifesaver for both patients and surgeons. Jean Guillaume Lugol was a 19th Century French Physician. He spent his life working with iodine, which he believed would be the ultimate cure for Tuberculosis. Sadly, Lugol’s iodine had no demostrable effect on TB, but in 1928 Henry Plummer from the Mayo Clinic showed its value in thyroid disease. #eyeofnewtinmilk #letsmakelemonade