Wajahat Amir, Ali Akbar, Sana Afroze, Rashid Mehmood, Samreen Mushtaq, Humayun Siiddique, Ameer Afzal, Khalid Masood Gondal.
The frequency of hypocalcemia in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy on first postoperative day.
J Allama Iqbal Med Coll Jan ;19(4):910-13.

Objective: To assess the frequency of hypocalcemia in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy on the first postoperative day Methods: 100 patients fulfilling inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study from the outpatient department (OPD) of General Surgery, CMH, Lahore. The non-probability purposive sampling technique was used in this study. Informed consent was taken from all the patients. Their demographics like name, age, gender, and address were noted. All surgeries were done under general anesthesia. After one day of surgery, the blood sample was obtained under aseptic measures. All samples were sent to the laboratory of the hospital for assessment of calcium level. Reports were assessed and calcium levels were noted. If calcium level was <8mg/dl, then hypocalcemia was labeled. All this information was recorded on proforma. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 Results: The mean age of patients was 46.00±15.64years. There were 36 (36%) males and 64 (64%) females. The mean calcium level after thyroidectomy was 8.26±1.38mg/dl. There were 33 (33%) patients who developed hypocalcemia after thyroidectomy while 67 (67%) had normal calcium levels. Conclusion: Thus, the frequency of hypocalcemia was high after total thyroidectomy. Optimization of the surgical technique (parathyroid preservation) could prevent the occurrence of hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy in some cases; in other cases, identification of risk factors of hypocalcemia pre-operatively could permit early detection and effective treatment of these patients.

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