Combined ionized calcium and PTH evaluation in the management of post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia

The aim of our study was to investigate the postoperative course of calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels after total thyroidectomy to define a proper and low cost protocol.

We studied 144 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy between 2007 and 2010. Ionized calcium was determined preoperatively and on day 1 (POD1), day 2 (POD2) and day 7 (POD7) postoperatively; PTH preoperatively and on POD7. Patients with ionized calcium ≤1.11 mmol/L were considered hypocalcemic and treated only if symptoms, ≤1 mmol/L were treated in all cases.

Ionized calcium and PTH declined postoperative in all patients compared to preoperative levels (P=0.000). Ionized calcium increased on POD7 compared to POD1 and POD2 (P=0.000). All hypocalcemic untreated 30 patients returned normocalcemic on POD7. Thirty-eight hypocalcemic patients were treated but 23 (61%) safely suspended therapy on POD7. We tested PTH and ionized calcium as independent factors of prolonged hypocalcemia (that required therapy beyond 7 days) with the following results (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and overall accuracy): PTH ≤11 pg/mL (80%, 100%, 100%, 96% and 97%, respectively), ionized calcium ≤1.11 mmol/L (80%, 88%, 59%, 95%, and 87%, respectively) and ionized calcium ≤1 mmol/L (28%, 100%, 100%, 87% and 88%, respectively).

Our data show that our protocol, including serum ionized calcium on 1^st, 2^nd, 7^th days and PTH on 7^th day after surgery, is safe and low cost and therefore may be useful in the post-surgical management of total thyroidectomy.