Intraoperative Monitoring of Intact PTH in Surgery for Renal Hyperparathyroidism as an Indicator of Complete Parathyroid Removal

In the setting of total parathyroidectomy and autotransplantation surgery (TPT × AS) as treatment for secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT), we evaluated whether intraoperative parathyroid hormone (iPTH) monitoring is useful as a reference for total parathyroid removal. We conducted a prospective, open, single value measurement efficacy study of the intraoperative (i.o.) diagnostic monitoring of iPTH in a cohort of surgical patients. All patients (n = 25) underwent TPT × AS at the Department of Surgery, Donostia Hospital from January 2002 to October 2004. The primary outcome measures were kinetics of serum levels of iPTH during surgery and prediction time of the of descent of PTH levels (measured in the clinic on the day of admission and intraoperatively during induction of anesthesia, every 5 and 10 minutes after removal of the adenoma, and again 24 hours thereafter). iPTH levels returned to normal in all 25 patients, decreasing from pathological levels at the beginning of the operation (1302.24 + 424.9 pg/ml) to half (50%) values at the third intraoperative determination, minute 10 (614.8 ± 196.62), becoming undetectable at 24 hours. Frozen sections were conclusive for parathyroid tissue (20.56 + 10.3 minutes after removal). Intraoperative measurement of iPTH is useful in the prediction complete removal of all parathyroid tissue prior to autotransplantation, thus avoiding persistence of disease because of incomplete surgery.