A community hospital experience with total parathyroidectomy and autotransplantation for renal hyperparathyroidism

This study was undertaken to determine the success of surgical treatment of advanced secondary (renal) hyperparathyroidism. From 1978 to 1985, total parathyroidectomy and autotransplantation (TPA) were performed for secondary hyperparathyroidism in 23 patients who had had dialysis for a mean of 6.5 years preoperatively. Indications for surgery included hypercalcemia, bone pain and pathologic fractures, metastatic calcification, and pruritus. Four glands were found and removed in all patients; 100-150 mg of diced tissue were autotransplanted to one forearm. Two patients died of myocardial infarction in the first postoperative week. Bone pain, present in 19 of 23 patients, was relieved almost immediately postoperatively and relief was sustained to death (of unrelated causes) or most recent follow-up in 13 patients. All fractures healed. All patients had markedly elevated serum parathormone (PTH) preoperatively and 14 of 23 were hypercalcemic. The group mean values of serum calcium, alkaline phosphatase, and PTH all fell to and remained in a normal range by 1 year postoperatively in that subset of patients who did not suffer recurrence. Six patients were reoperated on after 12 to 37 months with partial graft excision for recurrent bone pain and hypercalcemia. Bone pain in two of these patients was due to aluminum-associated bone disease and the diagnosis of recurrent secondary hyperparathyroidism was erroneous. The actual recurrence rate was thus 19 per cent. Consistent technical success, with no late hypocalcemia, was achieved and most patients were restored to medical manageability.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)