What is Parathyroid surgery?

Parathyroid glands are located in the neck region; it is basically located behind the thyroid gland. They are four sized gland responsible for producing hormones (parathyroid Hormone) for proper regulation of the calcium level in the human body. There are some diseases ranging from cancerous to non-cancerous requiring patient to go to a parathyroid disease treatment. Patient suffering from the hyperthyroidism can be resolved by parathyroid removal surgery, the disease can cause calcium level in the body to rise in the blood as the glands are over-producing PTH. Thyroid removal surgeries is the most prescribed treatment for the condition of the hyperthyroidism and in fact are prescribed 95% of the time.

What are the risks in Surgery?

While consulting a surgeon for your parathyroid removal surgery or Parathyroidectomy, you need to discuss about the risks associated with the surgery. Every surgery has some risk associated with it following are the risk of Parathyroidectomy:

• Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Damage/Injury: The parathyroid glands are close to voice box due to which the parathyroid glands are surrounded by the important nerves. With surgery for your parathyroid cancer treatment there is always a risk of damage in the nerve or any injury caused to nerve, you may suffer from hoarse voice. But, the chances of suffering from permanent hoarseness is reduce to 1% and 5% by going to best surgeons for parathyroid surgery and temporary hoarseness can be for about 6 months.
• Low Calcium in Blood: Maintaining calcium level in blood is the function of the parathyroid glands, since parathyroid tumor surgery needs to remove parathyroid gland causing inconsistencies in calcium level.  Patient may need to take calcium or vitamin D supplementation.
• Bleeding: The risk associated with parathyroid removal surgery are very less and chances are about 1/1300, patients are asked to stay overnight or for 24 hours in hospital.

How do you prepare yourself for surgery?

Parathyroid cancer treatment may ask patient to go for surgery as it is the best treatment available for parathyroid cancer. So, your surgeon and medical team will help you sort the things out before surgery and prepare you for the day of surgery.

Firstly, there will be series of pre-assessment test before operation this may include:

• Set of labs
• Chest Xray
• EKG

Before surgery the medical team will guide you for the change in diet and medication prior to surgery day, there are not lot changes that a patient need to make when going for parathyroid removal surgery. If you take blood thinning medication you need to discuss it with physician, such medications are:

• Aspirin
• Plavix
• Coumadin

You may need to stop taking above-mentioned pills.

Parathyroid Surgery FAQ

How long do I have to stay in the hospital? Can I have or ask someone to stay with me overnight?

After the surgery the patient need to be in the monitoring for the sometime, patient may be kept under monitoring for about 24 hours after the surgery. For relative there is always a room so that they can stay with the patient.

Will there be a scar after the Surgery?

Incision size depends on the surgical procedure and treatment, on an average it can be about 2-3 inches placed in the middle of neck.

How do I care for the Surgical Incision?

Taking care of the incision after surgery parathyroid removal surgery is very important, you medical team will guide you. After operation Steri-Strips will be placed on the incision that you need to remove after 14 days of the surgery. You can apply Vitamin E oil or other product that can help with the fast healing of the tissues. Patient needs to maintain a proper hygiene and take daily shower.

What type of medicines will be prescribed after the operation?

After the parathyroid removal surgery, patient may suffer from low calcium in blood. The medical staff will take the blood sample of the patient to check whether patient suffering from hypocalcemia. There are other symptoms of hypocalcemia that include:

• Numbness
• Tingling
• Muscle cramping

Patient will be prescribed with the supplement for maintaining the blood calcium levels. If needed Calcium tablets may be given alongside vitamin D. In case the patient fill pain after the surgery doctor may put him/her on pain reliever tablets.

Recovery after Surgery

After the surgical parathyroid disease treatment patient can return to the normal routine just after two days, still they need to avoid the task involving stress to body and heavy lifting. Since hyperparathyroidism is a chronic condition, you'll have to keep up medicines and dietary changes for throughout your life. The vast majority can monitor their symptoms with legitimate long haul treatment.

Minimally Invasive Parathyroid Surgery

Southlake General Surgery, healthcare center is one of the few centers nationwide to treat primary hyperparathyroidism in an outpatient setting, often under local anesthesia, with minimally invasive parathyroid surgery. In comparison with conventional parathyroid surgery, our minimally invasive approach results in less pain and faster recovery with fewer side effects.

Also called: Minimally Invasive Parathyroidectomy or "MIP"