A rare cause of primary hyperparathyroidism: Parathyroid lipoadenoma.

OBJECTIVE

The main cause of primary hyperparathyroidism is a single parathyroid adenoma. Parathyroid lipoadenomas contain abundance of fat cells. Because of these histological features, they can mimic normal parathyroid tissue at the histopathologic examination and radiological imaging could be difficult to localize lipoadenomas.

CLINICAL PRESENTATION: In this case report, we present three cases of functional parathyroid lipoadenomas.

CONCLUSION

Preoperative imaging modalities often can't localize lipoadenoma. In our cases, SPECT has seen more successful than ultrasonography or CT. There may not be gender predominance at parathyroid lipoadenomas. Intraoperative pathology consultation and rapid biochemical workup can help the surgeon in difficult cases.