Surgical management of hyperparathyroidism due to primary hyperplasia

A series of 104 consecutive patients treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1933 and 1978 for primary hyperplasia was reviewed. Early in this period (1933-1958) nine patients were treated by what was the considered subtotal resection (five with clear cell and four with chief cell hyperplasia). Hypercalcemia persisted in four cases; three from inadequate resection and one (case 170) associated with a fifth gland in the mediastinum that was removed at a second stage operation. Later (1959-1978), adequate subtotal resection, leaving 30 to 50 mg of viable hyperplastic tissue, was performed in 28 patients (7 with clear cell and 21 with chief cell hyperplasia). The operation was successful in 27 patients (96%). In one patient (case 442) subtotal resection failed, and hypercalcemia recurred, requiring a second operation. Sixty-seven patients in this series had excision of one, two, or three (but not more than three) glands. Of these 21 (31%) had persistent hypercalcemia after operation and required further surgery. Transient hypocalcemia occurred in 40 patients, permanent hypocalcemia in two. This study shows that subtotal resection, leaving 30 to 50 mg of viable tissue, is the surgical treatment of choice for primary parathyroid hyperplasia. It is effective in the great majority of patients. We have not found total parathyroidectomy with autotransplantation necessary and believe that it should be reserved only for selected cases.