RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL STUDY THE FREQUENCY OF POST-OPERATIVE ASYMPTOMATIC HYPOCALCAEMIA AFTER TOTAL THYROIDECTOMY COMPARING SUB-TOTAL THYROIDECTOMY

Introduction: Thyroidectomy, being one of the frequently performed operations, has a post-operative hypocalcaemia as a complication that has (0.33%-65%) occurrence rate. The occurrence of hypocalcaemia in both total/sub-total thyroidectomy is evident both biochemically and clinically. The symptoms of hypocalcaemia include facial muscles’ twitching, capo-pedal spasms, seizures, and irritability. On the other hand, it can also be asymptomatic completely. It may result in either post-operative or permanent misery for the patient.

Objective: The research objective is to compare total thyroidectomy and sub-total thyroidectomy relative to the frequency of post-operative asymptomatic hypocalcaemia among multi-nodular goitre patients.

Materials and Method: We conducted this randomized controlled trial study at Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore from April 2017 to January 2018.

Results: The mean age among the patients of Group-A and Group-B was (30.9 ± 9.6) and (31.59 ± 11) years respectively. We found asymptomatic hypocalcaemia among 35.6% (62) and 17.2% (30) patients of Group-A and Group-B respectively. We found a statistically significant difference between both groups with P-value of 0.000.

Conclusion: We found the frequency of AH to be higher significantly after TT comparing to STT. There is no significant relation of AH with gender. The chance of AH development among younger and older age patients was equal after TT or STT.

Keywords: Asymptomatic Hypocalcaemia (AH), Total Thyroidectomy (TT), Sub-total Thyroidectomy (STT), MNG, FNAC, and HPE.