Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy

, Volume 37, Issue 2, pp 161–165 | Cite as

Identification of parathyroid glands: anatomical study and surgical implications

  • Catarina Melo
  • Susana Pinheiro
  • Lina Carvalho
  • António Bernardes
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

While performing thyroid surgery, the unintentional lesion of parathyroid glands and laryngeal nerves results in a profound alteration in patient’s quality of life. To minimize thyroid surgery morbidity, the surgeon must have an in-depth knowledge of the thyroid gland morphology and its anatomical relations in the anterior compartment of the neck. This work intended to simulate total thyroidectomies using cadaver parts and isolate fragments that may correspond to parathyroid glands. The thyroid glands and “eventual” parathyroid glands were then submitted to histological study. Ninety-two cadaver parts were used for macroscopic dissection. A total of 242 fragments were isolated, 154 of which were confirmed through histological study to be parathyroid glands. In 36 cases, all “eventual” parathyroid glands isolated during dissection were confirmed through histological verification. In 40 cases, some glands were confirmed. In 16 cases, none of the “eventual” parathyroid glands was confirmed. The 92 thyroid glands isolated during dissection were also submitted to histological study. In 21 thyroid glands, 16 parathyroid glands were identified in the histological cuts: 8 sub-capsular, 8 extra-capsular, 6 intra-thyroidal. There was no statistical difference between the dimensions of the parathyroid glands. Parathyroid gland identification and preservation are sometimes a challenge during thyroid surgery, difficulty that has been demonstrated during dissection of cadaver parts.

Keywords

Anatomy Thyroid gland Parathyroid gland Thyroid surgery 
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Notes

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they had no conflict of interest concerning this work.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag France 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Catarina Melo
    • 1
  • Susana Pinheiro
    • 1
  • Lina Carvalho
    • 1
  • António Bernardes
    • 1
  1. 1.Faculty of MedicineUniversity of CoimbraCoimbraPortugal

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