Publication:

Post-operative hypocalcemia in patients undergoing thyroid surgeries in tertiary care hospital: an observational study

Background Post-operative hypocalcaemia is one of the most common complications of thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Temporary hypocalcaemia has been reported to occur in 1.6-50% of the patients undergoing bilateral thyroid resection. Permanent hypoparathyroidism results in 0-13% of patients after bilateral thyroid surgery.

Method We have analyzed the data of 34 patients undergoing total thyroid surgery (with or without neck dissection) and completion thyroidectomy at the department of ENT and HNS, SMHS hospital over a period of 1.5 years between May 2019 to November 2020.

Results Hypocalcemia was found in a total of 15 patients out of 34 patients in the post-op period. Among the total patients who developed hypocalcemia 5 (14.7%) were males and 10 (29.4%) were females. Among the patients who developed post-op hypocalcemia 14 patients developed transient hypocalcemia (p>0.01) which is not statistically significant and 1 patient developed permanent hypocalcemia (p>0.01) which also has no statistical significance.

Conclusions The study suggests that female gender is a strong risk factor for developing post-operative hypocalcemia, other factors that play a role include difference in serum calcium levels in the perioperative period and type of surgery.