Care of patients with hypocalcemia after parathyroidectomy

In this series of 56 patients diagnosed as having hyperparathyroidism, 37 per cent were found to have multiple gland involvement. The data seem to indicate that routine screening has increased the number of patients operated upon each year. Hypocalcemia in the postoperative period may be manifest by a variety of symptoms, but in general does not seem to affect the postoperative course. The postoperative low point of serum calcium seems directly temporally related to the highest preoperative levels-the higher preoperative levels take longer to reach lowest postoperative levels. Several techniques of management are described.