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Updated: Jun 1, 2025
Transoral Robotic Total Thyroidectomy and Bilateral Central Regional Lymph Node Dissection for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: September 15, 2023
Permanent hypoparathyroidism following total thyroidectomy - Incidence and preventative strategies without imaging
Anita Niu1, Lydia Zhou1, Alexander Papachristos2
1Department of Endocrine Surgery, Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Introduction:
Permanent hypoparathyroidism (pHypoPT) is the most common permanent complication of total thyroidectomy. We aim to describe the incidence and predictors of hypoparathyroidism in a consecutive series of patients treated in a high-volume centre and define strategies to reduce the risk of pHypoPT.
Methods:
1182 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy between April 2018 and June 2022 were analyzed. Temporary hypoparathyroidism (tHypoPT) was defined as PTH <0.4 pmol/L (<4 pg/mL) at day one post-operatively, or clinical or biochemical evidence of hypocalcemia. pHypoPT was defined as an ongoing need for calcitriol supplementation to maintain normocalcemia at 12 months. Symptomatic tHypoPT (OR 43.97, p < 0.001) and number of parathyroid glands in the operative specimen (OR 2.31, p = 0.022) were also significantly associated with pHypoPT.
Results:
Biochemical tHypoPT occurred in 205 (17.4 %) patients whilst pHypoPT occurred in 6 (0.5 %) patients. On multivariate analysis, parathyroid auto-transplantation (PA) independently reduced the risk of pHypoPT (OR 0.04, p = 0.004).
Conclusions:
The risk of pHypoPT after total thyroidectomy is 0.5 % when performed by high-volume surgeons. PA represents an important technique that reduces the risk of pHypoPT.
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