TITLE:
Hypothyroidism Prolongs Hospitalization Following Surgery
AUTHORS:
Raquel Villavicencio, Cary N. Mariash
KEYWORDS:
Hypothyroidism, Surgical Complications, Length of Stay, Preoperative Evaluation, Outcomes
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.10 No.12,
December
6,
2019
ABSTRACT: Objective: Each year 45 million surgical procedures are performed in the United States, and a significant number of these are performed on hypothyroid patients. Little guidance is available to determine the postoperative risk to these subjects. We hypothesized that new surgical techniques and modern anesthesia would lead to no differences in outcome between hypothyroid patients and euthyroid controls. Methods: We queried surgical databases in our health system for patients who underwent an operative procedure between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 with a TSH > 10 mcU/mL or a FT4 Results: We identified 29 hypothyroid patients. The LOS was significantly longer for the hypothyroid patients compared to the predicted LOS (14.4 vs 6.7 days, P Conclusions: In contrast to our initial hypothesis, hypothyroidism is associated with a 2-fold longer LOS following surgery. Hypothyroidism continues to place patients at increased surgical risk.