[Mediastinal exploration for hyperparathyroidism]

Five per cent of parathyroid adenomas are situated in the mediastinum. Many of them are accessible via a cervical incision: virtually all posterior mediastinal adenomas, by dissecting well behind the oesophagus, and most intrathymic adenomas, by cervical exteriorisation of the thymus. Finally, the indications for sternotomy are are: less than 2% of operations for hyperparathyroidism. After describing the technical details, the authors review the indications, the imaging modalities used and the results of their last 20 sternotomies.