Ajesh Gopal, Neenu Vijayakumar
BACKGROUND Symptomatic and asymptomatic hypocalcaemia can occur in a significant proportion of patients who undergo thyroidectomy surgery. This study aims to determine the incidence of postoperative hypocalcaemia after sutureless thyroidectomy and conventional thyroidectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS During a period of 3 years from 2015 to 2018, we included 120 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy in the department of general surgery into the study. Patients were divided into group 1 that included sutureless surgery using harmonic scalpel or bipolar diathermy and group 2 which included conventional suture ligation only. Post operatively, the serum calcium level was tested at 24 hours, 72 hrs and 1 week after thyroidectomy. The incidence of hypocalcaemia was studied in both the groups. Apart from this, the incidence of perioperative complications was also studied. RESULTS Among the 120 patients, 62 patients underwent sutureless thyroidectomy and 58 patients underwent conventional surgery. Transient hypocalcaemia occurred relatively more in patients who underwent sutureless thyroidectomy. Only one patient who underwent sutureless surgery developed persistant mild hypocalcaemia after 1 month of surgery who became normocalcaemic at 3 months. There were no cases of permanent hypocalcaemia in both the groups. CONCLUSION Incidence of transient hypocalcaemia was more with sutureless thyroidectomy. With regard to occurrence of permanent hypocalcaemia, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups as none of the patients developed permanent hypocalcaemia.
