Does Potassium Iodide (SSKI) Reduce Vascularity in Graves' Thyroidectomy?

Patients with Graves' disease and goiters tend to have very vascular thyroid glands, which increases operative bleeding risks/rates. Many surgeons treat these patients with preoperative SSKI which is believed to decrease the vascularity, which in turn may decrease bleeding risks. However, there has been no quantitative data published on whether this is a real effect with true clinical benefit, in either animal or human models with SSKI. There have been some studies in Europe studying Lugol's solution, a different formulation of iodine, which show some decreased vascularity using color Doppler or measurements of CD34 cells.