Surgical treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism

One hundred and two patients with primary hyperparathyroidism underwent a total of 108 bilateral neck explorations with attempted identification and biopsy of all four glands. Hypercalcaemia was surgically eliminated in 97 of 102 patients (95%). Of the remaining hypercalcaemic patients one was cured by percutaneous ethanol injection and one was reoperated and cured in another hospital. Three patients with persistent hypercalcaemia refused reoperation. Transitory hypocalcaemia with a median duration of 15 days was found in 36 patients, and permanent hypocalcaemia in two patients (1.9%). Permanent paralysis of the recurrent nerve occurred in three patients (2.9%). Twenty-one patients developed other postoperative complications from which they all recovered without sequelae. No postoperative deaths occurred. Our results show that surgical treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism--including bilateral neck exploration and attempted biopsies of all parathyroid glands--is safe with a high cure rate.