Surgical approaches to solitary parathyroid adenoma: state of the art. Our early experience with intraoperative parathyroid hormone measurement.

We report our early experience with focused radioguided parathyroidectomy with intraoperative parathyroid hormone measurement in patients affected by primary hyperparathyroidism. Over a period of 2 months we performed 4 consecutive focused parathyroidectomies with intraoperative parathyroid hormone measurement, 3 of which radioguided. All patients had a preoperative localization of single gland disease by sestamibi scanning and/or ultrasound. Blood samples for parathyroid hormone measurement were taken at baseline (induction of anaesthesia), 10 minutes after adenoma excision and the day after surgery. Three of the 4 patients were discharged within 24 hours. In all cases a solitary adenoma was successfully identified and removed. As predicted by the appropriate fall in intraoperative parathyroid hormone levels, all patients were considered cured on the basis of normal levels of calcium and parathyroid hormone at 1-month follow-up. Targeted parathyroidectomy can be successfully performed in patients with preoperatively localized solitary adenoma. The appropriate decrease in intraoperative parathyroid hormone levels assures a curative operation. The use of radioguidance should be recommended when difficulties with gland identification are foreseen.