Hypocalcemia in Total Thyroidectomy: A Hospital Based Study

Introduction: Thyroid surgeries since the last decade, have commonly being performed even for benign pathologies, due to improvement in surgical techniques like sutureless thyroidectomies. Most common complication associated with total thyroidectomy is hypocalcaemia. This study is being taken to evaluate the extent and impact of hypocalcaemia in total thyroidectomy. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in Department of Surgery, TMMCRC, Moradabad (UP), India. For this study, 38 patients (34 females and 4 males) were enrolled. Thyroidectomy was performed using a midline incision. Surgery time ranged between (110 and 121 +/- 10.5 min). Pre-and post-operative biochemical assessment of serum calcium and parathormone were made, along with all routine investigations. Results: Nine of 38 patients were diagnosed as of malignancy while remaining as of benign thyroid gland tumors. Hypocalcaemia was observed in 9 patients. In all these patient serum parathyroid hormone level also found to be low but as we proceeded with the study it started coming back to its normal level gradually. Out of 9 patients who had hypocalcaemia seven returned to the normal level, but two patients did not return to the normal level even after 1 year. Conclusion: Hypocalcaemia whether transitory or permanent is the most common complication of total thyroidectomies. So it is advisable to use that technique of thyroidectomy that poses less risk of inadvertent damage to parathyroid glands.