European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background: Postoperative hypoparathyroidism manifesting as hypocalcaemia is still one of the most common complications seen in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy, despite every effort by the surgeon to preserve the parathyroid glands during surgery. Incidence varies from 0.5 to 65%(1). In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the role of serum Parathormone level as a reliable indicator of hypocalcaemia following total thyroidectomy. Material and Methods: Present study was a cross-sectional, observational study conducted in all the patients undergoing Total thyroidectomy at a tertiary hospital.
Results: In this study, the total number of patients included was 42. 90.5 % were female, and 9.5 % were male. In the present study, 57.1% (n=24) had benign disease, and 42.9 %(n=18) had malignant disease. The mean serum PTH value was 16.38 ± 7.70pg/dl among the benign group and 13.66 ± 5.40pg/dl in the malignant group. Serum PTH was lower among the malignant group than the benign group but was not statistically significant. The difference between pre-operative and post-operative values of corrected calcium levels was statistically significant. The correlation between the pre-operative and post-operative corrected calcium parameters showed a good positive correlation and is significant with a p-value of 0.007. The post-operative corrected calcium (<8mg/dl) and serum PTH (<15pg/m) showed a good positive correlation with significant p-value of
Conclusion: Serum PTH hormone levels should be evaluated for all the patients undergoing total thyroidectomy at 24 hours postoperatively, which is a reliable early predictor for patients who can develop hypocalcaemia even before serum calcium levels drop and hence predicting patients at risk of developing hypocalcaemia and treating them prophylactically.