Incidental parathyroid adenomas with normocalcemia discovered during thyroid operations: report of three cases.

We report three cases of parathyroid adenoma incidentally discovered during a total thyroidectomy. No patients showed any clinical or chemical features that led us to suspect a hyperparathyroidism condition before operation, but a macroscopically enlarged parathyroid was discovered during the dissection and it was removed in all three cases. All patients had a single adenoma confirmed by a histological analysis. Calcemia decreased after operation in every case but only one patient needed temporary adjunctive therapy. No permanent hypoparathyroidism or recurrent hyperparathyroidism was observed. We recommend that any enlarged parathyroid discovered during neck surgery should thus be removed in order to avoid the risks of future surgical procedures due to successive bouts of clinical hyperparathyroidism.