Relationship of Post-Thyroidectomy Hypocalcemia to Surgeon’s Experience in a Private Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Objective:To determine the association of surgeon’s experience based on years of practice and incidence of post thyroidectomy hypocalcemia. Methods: Design: Retrospective cohort studySetting: Tertiary Private Training HospitalParticipants: Records of patients who underwent total thyroidectomy in a private tertiary hospital from January 2003 to December 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Medical information obtained were patient demographics, surgeon’s years of practice, thyroid specimen weight, technique of surgery, histopathologic findings and calcium assay values. Chi square test and Odds Ratio analysis were used to determine the relationship between the surgeon’s experience and post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia. Results:Three hundred fourteen (314) patients who underwent total thyroidectomy from 2003 to 2018 were included in the study. Overall rate of post-operative hypocalcemia was 41%. On multivariate analysis, no significant odds ratio was found between surgeons with 5 to 19 years of experience and those with more than 19 years of experience in relation to post-operative hypocalcemia [Odds Ratio 1.4 (95% Confidence Interval 0.7 to 2.6)]. Odds ratios for other variables may be interpreted, however, they could not be generalized over the population where data was gathered since the 95% Confidence Interval includes 1. Conclusion: The results of this retrospective cohort study suggest that post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia is not associated with surgeon’s experience based on years of practice. Further studies are recommended in a multicenter approach to better generalize to the whole population.