Unilateral Exploration for Parathyroid Adenoma

Between January 2012 to 2016, 20 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism underwent surgical exploration for presumed diagnosis of parathyroid adenoma. Nineteen patients underwent ultrasonography of neck and USG was found to be accurate in localizing the adenoma in 84.2%. Seventeen patients underwent sestamibi isotope scanning and imaging correlated with operative findings in 94.1%. Combined accuracy of ulrasound and sestamibi scan which was done in 17 patients was 95%. Seventeen patients underwent unilateral exploration and there was resolution of disease in 94.1%. Three patients underwent bilateral exploration and had a success rate of 100% in the removal of offending adenoma. Fifteen minutes post excision, rapid intraoperative intact parathormone assay was sent in 14 out of 17 unilateral explorations and was found to have true positive rate of 93% and false positive rate of 7%. There was a significant difference in the operating time between unilateral (17 patients, mean operating time 1 h) and bilateral (3 patients, mean operating time 1¾ hrs) explorations. It is clear from this study; the preoperative localization of adenoma with plan for unilateral exploration with a combination of ultrasonography and sestamibi scan is extremely useful if unilateral exploration is planned for excision of parathyroid adenoma. However, the number of patients who underwent 15 min post excision intact parathormone assay, is a small number to comment on its usefulness in predicting the success of unilateral exploration.