Investigation of the Frequency and Risk Factors of Hypocalcemia after Thyroid Surgery in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol, during the Years 2016 to 2019

Hypocalcemia is one of the severe complications of thyroid surgery. This complication usually occurs after damage to the parathyroid glands during surgery. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the frequency and risk factors of hypocalcemia after thyroid surgery in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol (2016-2019).

In this cross-sectional study, 160 patients who underwent thyroid surgery at Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Babol between 2015 and 2017 were included in the study. The amount of serum calcium immediately after surgery, on the first day after surgery and in case of hypocalcemia on the 4th day after surgery and the year of operation were completed by the project managers from the patients' files. The data was analyzed with SPSS V.22 software. Descriptive indices, Chi-square tests, and logistic regression were used. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

The average age was 45.07 ± 15.12 years and the median was 46.5 years. In examining the relationship (one-variable) between the variables of gender, thyroid malignancy, type of malignancy and type of surgery with hypocalcemia, only the type of surgery showed a significant relationship with hypocalcemia, so that the lowest amount of hypoglycemia was related to lobectomy (P = 0.004). Using logistic regression (in multivariate mode), the factors affecting hypocalcemia were evaluated. Finally, it was found that people with complete thyroidectomy have more than 3 times the chance of hypocalcemia compared to lobectomy (P = 0.004 and OR = 3.70).

According to the results, the frequency of hypocalcemia was similar to other studies conducted inside and outside the country, and total thyroidectomy surgery increases the chance of hypocalcemia.