4-Hour postoperative PTH level predicts hypocalcemia after thyroidectomy in children

Four-hour postoperative PTH monitoring effectively predicts hypocalcemia risk after total thyroidectomy in children, allowing targeted calcium supplementation. Children with normal 4-hour PTH levels rarely developed symptomatic hypocalcemia, while 73% with low PTH had biochemical hypocalcemia and 46% became symptomatic.