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Primary Hyperparathyroidism in Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1: Individualized Management With Low Recurrence Rates

¹ Department of Surgery, Taipei-Veterans General Hospital, 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Rd, Taipei, Taiwan
² Department of Insternal Medicine, Taipei-Veterans General Hospital, 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Rd, Taipei, Taiwan
³ Department of Pathology, Taipei-Veterans General Hospital, 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Rd, Taipei, Taiwan
⁴ School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming Univeristy, 155, Li-Nong Street, Sec. 2, Taipei, Taiwan

Correspondence: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Chen-Hsen Lee, MD, FACS; E-mail: chlee{at}vghtpe.gov.tw

Background: To evaluate the outcomes in different surgical modalities for primary hyperparathyroidism in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) patients, intraoperative findings from a single surgeon were studied to investigate a potentially improved modality of parathyroidectomy (PTx).

Methods: All 22 patients had PTx by a single surgeon in the past 21 years. Three modalities of PTx were used, depending on the operative findings, after all parathyroids and the thymus were identified. If fewer than three glands were enlarged, selective removal of the enlarged glands with or without biopsy of a normal-appearing gland was performed (selective PTx); if all glands were enlarged, either a subtotal PTx leaving a 50-mg remnant in situ or a total PTx with autotransplantation (TPTx + AT) was performed.

Results: There were 7 men and 15 women, aged 22 to 67 years (average, 43 years). Sixteen had familial and six had sporadic MEN1. They underwent 23 operations, including 11 selective PTx, 6 subtotal PTx, and 6 TPTx + AT. On follow-up for 1 to 19 years, only one patient (4.6%) had recurrent hyperparathyroidism 5.5 years after subtotal PTx. Others had either normocalcemia (n = 14; 63.6%) or hypocalcemia (n = 7; 31.8%). Those who had either a subtotal PTx or TPTx + AT had a significantly higher rate of postoperative hypocalcemia than those who had a selective PTx (9.9% vs. 54.5%; P = .032; Fisher’s exact test).

Conclusions: Primary hyperparathyroidism in our MEN1 patients was less aggressive than that reported in the literature. Selective PTx according to the intraoperative findings achieved optimal outcomes.

Key Words: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 • Parathyroidectomy • Recurrence • Hypocalcemia