Assessment of Effect of Preoperative Vitamin D Deficiency on Postoperative Hypocalcemia after Total Thyroidectomy, A Prospective Study

Abstract

ith increase in the number of thyroidectomies, the incidence of postoperative hypocalcemia has seen a rise as well. Deficiency of vitamin D has long been debated as a risk factor for post thyroidectomy hypocalcemia. The advantage of using vitamin D as a predictor for postoperative hypocalcemia may be (i) easy to estimate (ii) any deficiency can be easily corrected. The aim of the current study was to assess the effect of preoperative vitamin D3 deficiency on post thyroidectomy hypocalcemia. For that purpose, 60 Egyptian patients for whome total thyroidectomy was performed in general surgery department at Kafr Elshiekh University Hospital and Ain Shams University Hospital form April 2018 to October 2018. Patients were divided into 2 Groups according to preoperative vitamin D3 level; Group 1 included patients with vitamin D3 level <20 ng\ml and Group 2 included patients with vitamin D3 level >20 ng\ml. the incidence of postoperative hypocalcemia was investigated in all patients. Preoperative vitamin D measurements revealed a deficiency prevalence of 66.7% and a mean Vitamin D level of 17.09 ± 6.01. The main findings of the current study as regards to calcium was that the mean preoperative level of calcium was 9.61 ± 0.48 mg/dl, the lowest level of postoperative calcium was detected after 48 hours (9.03 ± 0.73) and the highest