Management of patients with persistent or recurrent primary hyperparathyroidism

Abstract

The surgical management of patients with persistent or recurrent primary hyperparathyroidism is reviewed. The several factors allowing the surgeon to formulate a correct working diagnosis and to successfully remove all abnormal parathyroid tissue are individually discussed and recent results of re-operative parathyroid surgery are presented. In particular, direct surgical exploration based on aggressive pre-operative localization studies, the use of intra-operative ultrasound to facilitate intra-operative dissection, cryopreservation of excised parathyroid tissue with potential for delayed autograft to avoid permanent hypoparathyroidism, and the use of intra-operative monitoring of urinary cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels in patients with parathyroid hyperplasia in whom the surgeon is uncertain whether all abnormal parathyroid tissue has been removed, each contribute to a high rate of successful management (greater than 95%) for patients with the difficult problem of persistent or recurrent primary hyperparathyroidism.