Why remove parathyroid gland

You can resume regular activity as tolerated. Walking outside, going up and down stairs, and performing light activities are all encouraged.

Avoid strenuous activity or lifting anything that weighs 10 pounds or more until you feel up to it. If you are feeling well and are not taking any pain medication, you may drive usually the third or fourth day after surgery. In general, you can return to work when you feel ready, usually within one to two weeks. Resume a normal balanced diet as tolerated. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids.

You should be seen by your surgeon approximately weeks following your surgery. This appointment can be made by calling our office In general, pathology results can expect to be final approximately days. This may vary depending on the type of surgery. Special staining may be necessary and may delay results. Pathology results will be discussed at your post-operative appointment unless otherwise indicated. If applicable, further treatment questions will be addressed at your post-operative appointment with the surgeon.

Treatment options may also be discussed with your referring endocrinologist. Parathyroidectomy Parathyroidectomy is the surgical removal of one or more parathyroid glands. Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury: This nerve controls your vocal cords and if injured you will have a hoarse voice.

Low blood calcium: There are parathyroid glands that lie behind your thyroid gland that help to control your blood calcium levels. If they are injured or removed can lie within the thyroid gland during your operation, then your blood calcium can be too low. This would require you to take calcium and vitamin D supplementation.

This is the main reason you stay overnight in the hospital. How do I prepare for surgery? How long is my hospital stay? Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; Quinn CE, Udelsman R. The parathyroid glands. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap Updated by: Debra G. Editorial team. Parathyroid gland removal.

During surgery: The cut is usually made in the center of your neck just under your Adam's apple. Your surgeon will look for the four parathyroid glands and remove any that are diseased. You may have a special blood test during surgery that will tell if all the diseased glands were removed.

In rare cases, when all four of these glands need to be removed, part of one is transplanted into the forearm. Or, it is transplanted into a muscle in the front of your neck next to the thyroid gland. This helps ensure your body's calcium level stays at a healthy level. Types of surgery include: Minimally invasive parathyroidectomy. You may receive a shot of a very small amount of radioactive tracer before this surgery.

This helps highlight the diseased glands. If you have this shot, your surgeon will use a special probe, like a Geiger counter, to locate the parathyroid gland. Your surgeon will make a small cut 1 to 2 inches; or 2.

This procedure takes about 1 hour. Video-assisted parathyroidectomy. Your surgeon will make two small cuts in your neck. One is for instruments, and the other is for a camera. Your surgeon will use the camera to view the area and will remove the diseased glands with the instruments. Endoscopic parathyroidectomy.

Your surgeon will make two or three small cuts in the front of your neck and one cut above the top of your collarbone. This reduces visible scarring, pain, and recovery time. This cut is less than 2 inches 5 cm long. This means of management of parathyroid disease may or may not be in the best interests of the patient based upon the potential risks small, but real of the standard parathyroid operation. You need to discuss the pros and cons of routine parathyroid surgery with your endocrinologist and weigh the risks of surgery versus continued monitoring of your body calcium stores and your bone density.

NOTE: Minimal parathyroid surgery has dramatically changing the way endocrinologists treat parathyroid disease, sending almost all of their patients for surgery immediately. The picture on the right shows how small of an incision is made for a MIRP minimally invasive parathyroid operation- it is a 1-inch incision and usually takes less than 20 minutes to perform. Again, if you can have a minute out-patient procedure to CURE your parathyroid problem, then it almost always makes sense to get this done instead of waiting to develop kidney stones, osteoporosis, or severe symptoms.

Thus, you need to read more on this web site about your surgery options and the difference between the old-fashioned operation and mini-parathyroid surgery. Patients go home within a couple hours.

Keep reading This big-old-fashioned parathyroid operation typically takes 3 to 6 hours to complete depending on the case and the skill of the surgeon , and 10 to 15 percent of patients will not be cured after the operation. As many as 5 percent will have a serious complication depending on your surgeon's experience. You can expect to spend 1 to 3 nights in the hospital. If your surgeon discusses having surgery this way, and "exploring" for your parathyroid glands, you may want to find an expert surgeon endocrine surgeon who performs parathyroid surgery on a more frequent basis.

However, parathyroid disease is an uncommon problem, so almost all surgeons only know how to do parathyroid surgery the old-fashioned way--the way they saw it done years ago when they were learning. Ask for an endocrine surgeon. Bottom line: This is a major operation but it is typically safe. The outcome will be determined by the experience of the surgeon.

Parathyroid experts typically perform one re-do operation per week because the previous surgeon didn't fix the problem. IMPORTANT: This is no longer the standard way of doing parathyroid surgery--everyone should be checked to see if they can have a minimally invasive parathyroid operation before they elect to have the 'old-fashioned' standard parathyroid surgery.

This cannot be over-emphasized! For almost all patients, this operation should no longer be done! Dear Dr Norman Please put this on your Website. I had my parathyroid operation in December by some other surgeon and not by you I first went to a surgeon that said the negative parathyroid scan meant that there was no tumor. I am 35 years old, well educated, had major bone pain for about 8 months, crippling at times and other typical symptoms.

My calcium levels were I realized I knew more about this than the first surgeon so I went to another surgeon. I had another scan done; this time it showed a faint object, so the surgeon decided to go in and "explore" for my parathyroid glands. He was going to "try" a mini operation first, and if he could do it, he would. This photo shows what the outcome was. The operation took almost 4 hours and I spent almost 2 days in the hospital. The incision makes me sick when I see how small and quick your parathyroid operations are.

Please put this picture on your website to show others of the " old school" parathyroid procedure. I thought I could get a good operation by my local "best guy". Obviously this is why people go to Tampa. Editors note: This is very typical of parathyroid surgery performed by surgeons who don't do this operation every single day. We actually see this every day, and quite a few that are worse. This was done in Fort Worth, Texas Parathyroid surgery performed this way is big and dangerous The picture at the top of the page which shows the neck cut wide open is exactly what this lady's neck looked like during the first part of her parathyroid surgery, and what yours will look like if you don't have an expert.

Look, we can't perform everybody's parathyroid operation, so please, do your homework. Do not have parathyroid surgery done by some local surgeon because he was a great guy when he fixed your husband's hernia or took out your gallbladder!

You have a high chance of a poor outcome.