Surgical Treatment of Hyperparathyroidism: An Overview

Parathyroid glands are tiny structures, usually four in number, and located in the perithyroidal region and are pivotal in regulating calcium homeostasis. The very candid initial description of parathyroid glands was given by Ivar Sandström in 1879 [1]. But the English Anatomist Sir Richard Owen (1850) observed a few unusual structures on animal dissection on an Indian rhinoceros which he described as a small compact yellow glandular body attached to the thyroid gland at the point where the veins emerge [2]. Halsted and Evans, in 1907, gave a detailed description of the human parathyroid blood supply [3].