[Combined touching and palpation in parathyroid surgery].

The parathyroid glands may be located anywhere and hidden in the thick thyroid gland sheath, so that the duration of parathyroidectomy is impossible to predict. For accurate and rapid identification and assessment of the nodule to be dissected, the authors advocate a two-finger method: one index finger palpates the whole length of the posteromedial segment of the thyroid sheath, while the other index finger penetrates into the thyroid cavity. Fourteen parathyroid adenomas and 39/40 hypertrophied glands were detected by this method. Results were negative in 12 cases with unconfirmed biological diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism.