Many surgeons intend to preserve all of the parathyroids during a thyroid operation; however, they have had the unpleasant experience of achieving unintentional parathyroidectomy. We studied the risk factors for unin-tentional parathyroidectomy and whether these unintentional parathyroidectomies caused symptomatic hypocalcemia.

We conducted a retrospective review of the medical records and pathologic reports of 95 papillary carcinoma patients who underwent operations between January 1994 and December 2003. We statistically analyzed the correlation between unintentional parathyroidectomy and the risk factors such as tumor size, capsular invasion, including extra-thyroidal extension, and the operation method.

Of the total 95 procedures, 14 (14.7%) produced patho-logy reports stating that incidental parathyroid tissue was identified within the thyroidectomy specimen. The majority of the 14 reported cases contained only a single focus of inci-dental parathyroid tissue; however, one of these thyroidectomy specimens contained two foci of parathyroid tissue. The factors such as tumor size, capsular invasion and extensive surgery were not correlated with the prevalence of unintentional parathyroidectomy. There was no association of unintentional parathyroidectomy with postoperative hypocalcemia (P=.449).

Unintentional parathyroidectomy is not associated with symptomatic postoperative hypocalcemia. The factors such as tumor size, capsular invasion or extensive surgery are not risk factors for unintentional parathyroidectomy.