changes of total calcium levels during abdominal gynaecologic surgeries according to the type of anesthesia

Background: calcium plays an important role in many biophysiological mechanisms .the present study was carried out to assess alterations in total serum calcium level before and after operations in consider to the type of anesthesia. materials and methods: this descriptive study was conducted in 74 women scheduled for abdominal gynaecological surgeries during one year at al-zahra maternity hospital in rasht, iran. all patients were in asa (american society of anesthesiologists) class i and ii. seventy four cases were randomly underwent general anesthesia (ga) (n=37) or spinal anesthesia (sa) (n=37). blood samples (2 cc), were obtained an hour before the anesthesia and two hours after that. then, blood samples were sent to the laboratory to determine total serum calcium level, magnesium (mg) and albumin level using photometric methods. data were analyzed using the vilkson non-parametric and pearson's correlation test. p-values less than 0.05 have been considered as statistically significant. results: mean total serum calcium levels ± se at pre and postoperative period were 8.75±0.32 mg/dl and 8.4 ± 0.46 mg/dl, respectively. there was a significant difference in total serum calcium level before and after all types of surgeries (p<0.001). there was a significant trend to decrease in calcium levels after all abdominal gynaecological operations, but there was a significant correlation between general anesthesia and reduction of serum calcium level (p=0.026) . based on outcomes, general anesthesia is accompanied by more calcium reduction than spinal anesthesia. conclusion: serum calcium levels tend to decrease after all abdominal gynaecological surgeries, but general anesthesia results in more calcium reduction than spinal anesthesia. further studies are needed to illustrate the association between different methods of anesthesia and ca++ changes.