Reoperative surgery for hyperparathyroidism.

The difficulties created by an unsuccessful initial operation can usually be avoided by choosing experienced surgeons, identifying four glands, and selectively excising grossly abnormal parathyroid tissue. Patients with multiple endocrine adenomatosis or familial hyperparathyroidism should have a subtotal parathyroidectomy. Reoperative surgery is difficult and although it is successful in approximately 70 to 80 percent of patients, it is associated with a significant morbidity which includes persistent hypercalcemia, hypoparathyroidism, and nerve injury. Reoperative parathyroid surgery should be done in specialized centers where the sophisticated methods of preoperative localization and surgeons experienced in this field are available.