Parathyroid Crisis: Treatment by Emergency Parathyroidectomy

INTRODUCTION Many excellent papers have been written in recent years on the subject of hyperparathyroidism, but there is little to be found in the literature regarding acute hyperparathyroidism or parathyroid crisis. A review of the available literature reveals only 14 cases to have been reported thus far, and in the majority of these the diagnosis was established only after the patient's death. Of the few cases in which the condition was diagnosed while the patient was still alive, in only two instances was the patient given the benefit of emergency parathyroidectomy. In this paper we should like to emphasize the importance of immediate surgery in the patient with hyperparathyroidism who develops an acute parathyroid crisis. We should also like to review briefly the cases reported and to point out their great similarity of symptomatology which should lead the physician to suspect that he is dealing with a case of acute