Influence of surgical volume on operative failures for hyperparathyroidism

Hyperparathyroidism is a disease that is often seen in the United States. Patients may present with a wide variety of symptoms affecting multiple organs, but frequently, they are found to be hyperparathyroid on a routine blood examination. Although these patients may be asymptomatic, new consensus guidelines exist for when they should undergo surgery, and several studies have shown multiple benefits from operative intervention. Surgical cure rates can be greater than 95%, but if the initial surgery is unsuccessful, the cure rate becomes 80%. In the hands of experienced surgeons, both initial cure rates and those for reoperations are much higher, illustrating that the surgical volume does affect failure in parathyroid surgery.