Reassessment of parathyroid hormone monitoring during parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism after 2 preoperative localization studies.

HYPOTHESIS: For patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and patients with 2 localization studies showing the same single location of parathyroid disease, use of intraoperative parathyroid hormone (IOPTH) measurement does not significantly increase the success of minimally invasive parathyroidectomy.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

Experience of 2 academic centers over 5 years (at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass) and almost 4 years (at Rhode Island Hospital, Providence).

PATIENTS: A total of 569 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism who underwent technetium Tc 99m sestamibi (MIBI) parathyroid imaging and neck ultrasonography (US).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence of correct prediction of location and extent of disease.

RESULTS

In 322 patients (57%), MIBI and US imaging identified the same single site of disease. In 319 (99%) of these 322 patients, surgical exploration confirmed a parathyroid adenoma at that site, and the IOPTH levels normalized on removal. In 3 (1%) of the 322 patients, IOPTH measurement identified unsuspected additional disease. In 3 (1%) of the remaining 319 patients, IOPTH-guided removal of a single adenoma failed to correct hypercalcemia. Therefore, the failure rate of surgery in patients with positive MIBI and positive US imaging was 1% with IOPTH measurement and 2% without IOPTH measurement (P = .50). In 201 (35%) of the 569 patients, only 1 of the 2 studies recognized an abnormality or the studies disagreed on location. In these cases, either MIBI imaging or US imaging (if MIBI imaging was negative) failed to predict the correct site or extent of disease in 76 (38%) of the 201 patients (P<.001 vs concordant studies).

CONCLUSIONS

In primary hyperparathyroidism, concordant preoperative localization with MIBI and US imaging is highly accurate. Use of IOPTH measurement in these cases adds only marginal benefit. When only 1 of the 2 studies identifies disease or the studies conflict, however, IOPTH measurement remains essential during minimally invasive parathyroidectomy.