preventive effect of dexamethasone therapy on the transient hypoparathyroidism through total thyroidectomy

Introduction: this study aimed to investigate whether pre-operative dexamethasone could ameliorate transient hypoparathyroidism outcome through total thyroidectomy.   materials and methods: this randomized clinical trial study was conducted on 128 patients underwent total thyroidectomy from march 2014 to april 2015. patients were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental receiving 8 mg iv of intravenous dexamethasone (n=45) 45 min before skin incision treatment and control (n=83). after the surgery, all patients were evaluated for clinical and laboratory hypocalcaemia.   results: post-operative transient biochemical hypoparathyroidism and hypocalcaemia did not occur more often in the control group, compared to the dexamethasone group while controlling for the baseline variables. however, there was a significant difference in phosphorus level between the dexamethasone and control groups (p=0.028). a total of 50 (39.1%) patients developed hypocalcaemia after surgery. moreover, post-operative symptomatic hypocalcemia occurred more frequently in the control group (68%) compared to the dexamethasone group (32%); however, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.54).   conclusion: the pre-operative administration of dexamethasone reduced post-operative hypocalcemia rate. it is essential to conduct future studies with validated means for better results.