[Surgical anatomy of the parathyroid glands. Apropos of 200 cases. Practical implications]

An operative procedure aimed at decreasing the risk of post-surgery hypothyroidism was proposed on the basis of parathyroid gland surgical anatomy described from a retrospective study of 200 thyroidectomies performed by the same operator It is almost always possible to visualize 1 or parathyroids during thyroid procedures. This fact makes it possible to reduce the rate of definitive hypoparathyroidism to less than 5% in surgery for invasive cancer of the thyroid and to 1% for non-invasive cancers requiring total thyroidectomy and uni or bilateral mediastinorecurrent curettage.