Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The development of the Covid-19 pandemic infection, which started in March 2020 in Tunisia, has impacted all medical specialties. Endocrine care professionals were part of this battle, as many patients with endocrine diseases including primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) were also affected by the pandemic. the aim of our study was to evaluate the Impact of the Covid19 pandemic on patients with PHPT.

Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study of 28 patients diagnosed with PHPT and hospitalized between January 2018 and December 2021 at the endocrinology department of the military hospital of Tunisia. Clinical and paraclinical data were collected from medical records.

Results: Our population consisted of 10 men and 18 women with a mean age of 61.14 ± 12.16 years. The mean calcemia was 3 ± 0.4 mmol/l. The mean PTH was equal to 318 ± 337 pg/ml. COVID-19 infection was noted in 69.1% of our patients. Sixty-eight per cent of them required hospitalization. Irregular follow-up during the covid pandemic was noticed in 64% of our patients and 57% were lost to follow-up. only eight patients (29.6%) underwent surgery during this period and the surgery was delayed for the other patients. Among those who did not undergo surgery, four patients developed renal lithiasis during this period and five patients had a decrease in bone density.

Conclusion: The management of PHPT during the COVID-19 pandemic, when surgery is not possible and hospital visits are limited, presented a challenging clinical situation. Appropriate distant follow-up and monitoring of these patients was essential until the resolution of the pandemic.