Focused parathyroidectomy guided by intra-operative parathormone monitoring does not miss multiglandular disease in patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism: a 10-year outcome.

BACKGROUND: There remains concern that focused parathyroidectomy guided by intra-operative parathormone monitoring (IPM) will miss multiglandular disease (MGD) leading to a higher recurrence rate. This study reports the 10-year outcome of patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism treated by focused parathyroidectomy guided by IPM.

METHODS: From 1993 to 1998, 173 consecutive patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism underwent focused parathyroidectomy guided by IPM. When IPM showed >50% decrease 10 minutes after abnormal gland excision, the operation was completed. Recurrent hyperparathyroidism was defined as elevated serum calcium and parathormone (PTH) levels >6 months after successful parathyroidectomy.

RESULTS: There were 164 patients with a mean follow-up of 83 months. In this group, 96% patients had single gland disease (SGD) and 4% had MGD. Five (3%) patients developed recurrent hyperparathyroidism at 2, 4, 9, 10, and 12 years. In 43 eucalcemic patients followed for >10 years, PTH levels remained normal in 54%, were constantly above normal range in 2%, or varied between normal and above normal range in 44%.

CONCLUSION: In patients 10 years after treatment, IPM-guided parathyroidectomy does not fail to identify MGD, allows for limited dissection in SGD, and shows that various sized parathyroid glands left in situ do not cause higher recurrence rates.