Do you have experience performing both unilateral and bilateral approaches for parathyroidectomy under local anesthesia?
There are two main approaches for parathyroid surgery: unilateral (one side of the neck) and bilateral (both sides). Bilateral surgery is best for the patients who are at risk for multi-glandular parathyroid disease, which occurs in about 10-20% of patients, or for the patients who have co-existing thyroid nodules, which occurs in about 20% of patients. If you choose to have your operation done under local anesthesia, it is important that your surgeon is experienced in performing the bilateral as well as the unilateral approach under local. Often surgeons who will perform thyroid or parathyroid surgery under local will only do so unilaterally because they lack experience with the bilateral technique under local or they believe it takes too long. If you have an experienced surgeon, there is very little difference between the bilateral and unilateral approaches in terms of recovery time, hospital stay, incision size, duration of operation and complications.