Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Minimally invasive parathyroid surgery with intraoperative parathyroid hormone testing has been reported to be as successful as a bilateral operation. This study aimed to determine whether the histologic findings and outcomes differ in patients with primary sporadic hyperparathyroidism treated by a focal or a bilateral parathyroid exploration with intraoperative parathyroid hormone testing. To make the two groups comparable all patients had a solitary parathyroid adenoma identified preoperatively. ⋯ Patients with primary hyperparathyroidism having a bilateral exploration had about a 15% higher rate of multiple parathyroid tumors than did patient having a focal approach. Despite this observation all patients were normocalcemic postoperatively. This suggests that either some histologically abnormal parathyroid glands do not function or there will be recurrences in patients treated by a focused approach. Longterm followup will be necessary to determine whether patients treated by focal neck exploration will develop recurrent primary hyperparathyroidism.