Confusion and disorientation - Before and after Prathyroid surgery - General Health Message Board

pshitut · 05-27-2008, 04:48 AM

My mother is 72 years old and has been slowing down for couple of years. She have had vertigo problem for few years too. Almost 3 months back she fell down and had several hariline hip fractures. No surgery was required but heavy calcium dosage was given. Two weeks after that, she started to get confused and disoriented. Admitted to to hospital and was diagnosed with high PTH level of 198 and calcium was above 12 mg. A prathyroid surgery was done to remove two glands. As we read it everywhere, we thought her confusion and disorientation is caused by hight calcium levels. After parathyroid surgery calcium level has come down to below 10 and PTH is 38 but her confusion and disorientation is still there. She is primarily confused about TIME and PLACE. A brief brain scan was also done prior to the surgery which showed couple of spots which were primarily due to aging.
A week after surgery she also showed some psychotic behavior.
We are really concerned and confused that her "confusion" or "disorientation" did not get corrected after parathyroid surgery and after calcium levels have come down. It has been 2 weeks since surgery. Any comments anyone can offer? Prognosis? Thanks.

hermes370 · 05-27-2008, 10:45 AM

sounds like your mother is suffering from dementia with an underlying acute deliriium .. you can get an delirium from hypercalcemia but if it's now resolved then one would have to assume that it's something else that is causing this ... there is a huge differential for delirium including post operative, other electrolyte distrubances, toxicities(meds/vitamins/chemicals), any infection, problems with the liver(hepatic encephalopathy), kidneys(uremia), heart, organic brain disorders and the list goes on ...

your best bet would be to take your mother to her PCP to get looked at ... but in the mean while I would make sure to try to orient your mother as much as possible, keep familiar places, people around you, just to minimize the chance of disorientation contributing to her confusion

best of luck