Introduction:

hypocalcemia is the most frequent complication in patients undergoing thyroidectomy.

Objective:

to learn about the incidence of hypocalcemia during the first 72-hour period after surgery and permanent hypoparathyroidism, as a complication of thyroidectomy in 6 years.

Methods:

descriptive and retrospective study of patients undergoing thyroidectomy between January 2011 and December 2016. Hypocalcemia is defined as total serum calcium concentration < 8.8 mg/dL.

Variables considered cwere gender, age, type and duration of surgery, clinical manifestations of acute hypocalcemia and pathological anatomy, and they were crossed with the minimum measurement of calcemia. Permanent hypoparathyroidism was defined when patients were still under therapy at least one year after the surgery.

Results:

141 patients, 130 women, average age was 45.9 years old. 95% of them presented hypocalcemia within the first 72 hours of the postoperative period; as to age and gender: <29 years old, 90% (p 0.38), 30 - 49, 96% (p 0.4), 50 - 69, 98% (p 0.52) and =70 92% (p 0.16); 97% of women and 91% of men (p 0.26) suffered from hypocalcemia. Duration of surgery: < 130 minutes, 130 - 185, >185, hypocalcemia was seen in 4, 2 and 1 patients respectively. Malignant lesions were found in 60 patients, 58 had hypocalcemia; out of 81 benign cases, 76 had hypocalcemia (p 0,537). In a group of thyroidectomies, 95% had hypocalcemia (p<0.05). 71% were asymptomatic hypocalcemia, 10% presented symptoms and there was no data for 19%. Eight of them have permanent hypoparathyroidism and there was no data for 11 cases.

Conclusions:

most patients presented hypocalcemia. There was no correlation between hypocalcemia and age, gender, duration of surgery or pathology results. Correlation was found between thyroidectomies and hypocalcemia. One out of ten presented symptoms of hypocalcemia. Incidence of permanent hypoparathyroidism was 6%.

        · resumo em Português | Espanhol     · texto em Espanhol     · Espanhol ( pdf )