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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Avicenna J Med 2020; 10(04): 249-251
DOI: 10.4103/ajm.ajm_54_20
Case Report

Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis after urethral dilatation

Moayyad Alziadat
Department of Critical Care Medicine, St Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson, New Jersey, USA
,
Mourad Ismail
Department of Critical Care Medicine, St Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson, New Jersey, USA
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Subject Editor: Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) is a rare and serious manifestation of thyrotoxicosis that causes flaccid paralysis. In severe cases, it can be life-threatening due to respiratory failure and cardiac arrhythmias. TPP is due to increased sodium/potassium ATPase activity during thyrotoxic states, which is due to mutations encoding potassium channels. It is precipitated by situations that cause a surge in catecholamines, insulin, or both. It can be treated with potassium supplementation and nonselective beta blockers, and it can be prevented by establishing euthyroid state. With the increasing numbers of outpatient procedures performed nowadays and the stress related to these procedures, patients with TPP may develop paralysis after these procedures, so clinicians should be aware of this condition and the importance of identifying it in patients presenting with flaccid paralysis.

Keywords

Hypokalemia - paralysis - periodic - thyrotoxic - thyrotoxicosis


Publication History

Article published online:
04 August 2021

© 2020. Syrian American Medical Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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