Parc Taulí performs outpatient surgical treatment for the extirpation of the parathyroid glands

The professionals of the General and Digestive Surgery service at Parc Taulí already perform outpatient surgical treatment for the removal of the parathyroid glands in the treatment of Primary Hyperparathyroidism. In this way, patients can go home the same day and recover at home, before they had to spend 24 hours in the hospital.

This improvement has been made possible by the change in the global surgical process studied by Dr. Xavier Guirao, coordinator of the Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery Unit and Dr. Santiago Barcons, together with the Anesthesiology, Nursing, Neurophysiology, Endocrinology, Radiology and Nuclear Medicine service team. As well as, for the expansion of operating theaters in the Ambulatory Surgical Center (CQA), which has allowed more surgeries to be performed.

To be able to access this outpatient surgical process, patients with primary hyperparathyroidism must meet certain criteria. The most important are to rule out multiglandular parathyroid pathology, not to suffer from any serious illness and to be part of the group with a low anesthetic risk. Parathyroid adenomas, diseased parathyroid glands, must be doubly located.

To be able to make this check, prior to surgery, adenomas are studied with two tests: a nuclear and a radiological one. If the radiological test and the nuclear test agree in the location of the adenoma, it means that it is doubly located. In other words, that patient can be treated with ambulatory surgery.

Since the implementation of this new surgical process, two patients have benefited from this change in surgical treatment, and have recovered favorably. It is expected that more than twenty patients can be treated with this new process.

What changes have occurred in the surgical process?

Different steps are followed from the previous procedure: a different anesthesia is used where no relaxants are used to be able to have continuous nerve stimulation, in order to see the functionality of the vocal cords, at all times, with the help of the neurophysiologist.

A special intubation is also used, the tube carries an electrode that contacts the vocal cords and allows them to be monitored.

What are the parathyroid glands?

The parathyroid glands are four small clusters of endocrine tissue that are located in the neck, adjacent to the thyroid, and whose function is to maintain a constant concentration of calcium in the blood.

The most common reason a patient needs parathyroid surgery is primary hyperparathyroidism, a condition in which one or more parathyroids become enlarged and produce an increase in calcium in the blood. Although it is a disease that can appear at any age, it is more common in women between the ages of 45 and 65, and can cause kidney stones, osteoporosis, digestive disorders, fatigue and general tiredness.