Hi Dear,
Good day.
Hyperparathyroidism can be confusing to patient and doctor. But I truely beleive that ENT surgeon is not the best person to deal with it. The best person to deal with this is an
endocrinologist who will then refer you to an appropriate surgeon if surgery is indicated.
First of all, the nodule sitting in Thyroid could be
parathyroid adenoma itself.
When we deal with hyperparathyroidism, the question is where is the adenoma and does that need to be removed ?. Sometimes parathyroid adenomas can be multiple and there can be adenomas sitting inside your chest too.
Hyperparathyroidism could be a part of a complex disorder called
Multiple endocrine neoplasia ( where there can be nodules in other endocrne glands like thyroid, adrenal, pituitary etc). But this is a rare condition.
You need a carefully done Ultrasound scan and may be a CT scan as well. We may also require a special scan called SESTAMIBI scan ( nuclear scan).
There are number of situations where we offer surgery like
a) Age
b) Presence of bone loss ( you know that
parathyroid disease cause bone loss)
c) elevated creatinine and evidence of kidney disease
d) Calcium too high
When this is the situation, performing a half
thyroid surgery really may not be helpful. YOU NEED A CAREFFUL EVALUATION BY AN ENDOCRINOLOGIST BEFORE A SURGEON CAN DO A SURGERY. Otherwise, we have seen many patients continue to have high calcium even after the surgery and future need of many more surgeries.
I would advice you to meet an Endocrinologist and get a DXA scan ( bone scan) to check for
Osteoporosis before you consider any surgery.
Kind Regards
Binu