A Study on Post Thyroidectomy Hypocalcemia

Dr Rishikeshan Nair; Dr Aravind S Ganapath; Dr Anoop S

Volume : VII, Issue : II, February - 2017

A Study on Post Thyroidectomy Hypocalcemia

Dr Rishikeshan Nair, Dr Aravind S Ganapath, Dr Anoop S

Abstract :

Post thyroidectomy hypocalcemia is a major problem for surgeons. Hypocalcemic tetany is assumed to be caused by inadvertent injury to parathyroid glands. This study was conducted to assess the incidence of post thyroidectomy hypocalcaemic tetany in near total thyroidectomy, sub total thyroidectomy and hemithyroidectomy. A total of 202 patients were studied. In our study out of the three groups those who underwent hemithyroidectomy did not develop clinical hypocalcaemia but a transient fall in serum calcium which returned to normal was noticed. The incidence of hypocalcaemia in those who underwent sub total thyroidectomy was very low compared to other studies and was 1.01%. No patient developed permanent hypoparathyroidism and the incidence of hypocalcaemia in those who underwent near total thyroidectomy is 18.5%. No patient had permanent hypocalcaemia. The overall incidence in our study is 2.31 % which is very low. This probably reflects the effectiveness of careful preservation of parathyroid glands and its vascularity.