Why Use FTLES?
Minimally Invasive Parathyroid Surgery
Minimally Invasive Adrenal Surgery
Pearls You Should Know
Questions For Your Physician
Glossary

Are you certain that my high calcium is being caused by hyperparathyroidism? There are many different causes for high blood calcium and parathyroid hormone excess is only one of them.

Are you sure that parathyroid surgery is the right thing for me? Could I be treated with medication? Many patients with kidney failure and hyperparathyroidism are best treated with a drug called Sensipar.

Have you located my enlarged parathyroid gland with sestamibi scanning or high resolution ultrasonography? In order to minimize your time on the operating table under anaesthesia, it is best to give your parathyroid surgeon a roadmap to the enlarged parathyroid gland.

How many parathyroid surgeries per month does your favorite surgeon perform? To maintain competence in the neck, a surgeon should be operating on the thyroid or parathyroids at least once a week. This translates to fifty neck surgeries a year.

Does your favorite parathyroid surgeon use minimally invasive techniques? He/she should, since 90% of patients with hyperparathyroidism can be cured by removing a single enlarged gland through a one inch incision.

Does your surgeon’s hospital have sestamibi probe technology, intra-operative rapid PTH testing, and a same-day discharge program for parathyroid patients? Use of the intra-operative sestamibi probe is an excellent way to locate enlarged parathyroid glands, even when outpatient sestamibi scanning fails. Rapid PTH testing in the operating room confirms that the surgeon has removed all the overactive parathyroid tissue. Same day discharge is possible when we know that the surgery has been done correctly. Remember that using the intra-operative sestamibi probe WITHOUT rapid PTH testing will give the surgeon a false sense of security and result in surgical failure 10% of the time, since 10% of patients have more than one parathyroid tumor causing their hypercalcemia. Such false security can lead to an inadequate surgery and recurrent hypercalcemia (high calcium blood levels) down the road.

If the answers to these questions include a lot of long pauses and/or “no’s,” consider our patient-centered, minimally invasive alternative in South Florida:

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