Objective: Temporary hypocalcemia is the most common complication after thyroidectomy and is easily treated when it occurs. The main problem of the temporary hypocalcemia is the prolongation of hospital stay. The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors of postoperative temporary hypocalcemia in a group of patients whom underwent thyroid surgery.
Material and Method: The retrospective data of the 177 patients of whom underwent total thyroidectomy between January 2012 and December 2013 were evaluated. Hypocalcemia is defined as total plasma calcium level below 8 mg/dl. Temporary hypocalcemia is defined as recovery of hypocalcemia in 6 months following total thyroidectomy. Gender, preoperative vitamin D deficiency, surgery for recurrent disease, presence of hyperthyroidism, extent of surgery, number of parathyroid glands identified and protected, parathyroid autotransplantation, presence of parathyroid glands in surgical specimen were analyzed as the risk the factors for temporary hypocalcemia. Nomial logistic regression analysis, Chi-Squared test and Fishers exact test were used for statistics.
Results: Temporary hypocalcemia occurred in 37 of 177 (150F, 27M) (20.9%) patients. In nominal regression analysis, only the presence of parathyroid glands in the surgical specimen was determined as independent variable factor of transient hypocalcemia (p=0.025).
Conclusion: The presence of parathyroid glands in the surgical specimen is responsible for the high rate of temporary hypocalcemia. Careful examination of the surgical specimen intraoperatively can minimalize the incidence of inadvertent parathyroidectomy during thyroidectomy.
Key words: Incidental parathyroidectomy, postoperative hypocalcemia, total thyroidectomy
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