Objective
The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential causes of unintentional parathyroidectomy during thyroid surgery.
Patients and methods
A total of 157 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for benign or malignant diseases between May 2016 and May 2018 in the Endocrine Surgery Unit of Ain Shams University Hospital and Helwan University Hospital. Patients with recurrent thyroid disease and parathyroid gland disease requiring parathyroidectomy were excluded.
Results
There were 18 parathyroid glands removed in 16 patients; seven were intracapsular and six were intrathyroidal parathyroid glands, with a mean size of 4.7 mm which is less than the mean size of the parathyroid gland. In spite of the high percentage of women in the unintentional parathyroidectomy group this was not statistically significant. Also, we found that the patients in the unintentional parathyroidectomy group were higher in BMI (32.25±3.62 kg/m) with a lower thyroid specimen weight average of 52.56±3.25 g. Total thyroidectomy with lateral neck dissection was found to be associated with high risk of unintentional parathyroid gland removal.
Conclusion
There are several factors that may affect unintentional parathyroidectomy such as the BMI, thyroid gland weight, site and size of the parathyroid gland and type of operations.