Most patients with confirmed primary hyperparathyroidism will benefit from parathyroid surgery, whether they feel symptoms or not. One the diagnosis is made, it will not go away, but will persist or worsen with time.
Those with symptoms will almost always feel better after surgery and biochemical cure.
“Asymptomatic” patients often notice they feel better too. They simply didn’t realise what was not quite right.
Furthermore, “Asymptomatic” primary hyperparathyroidism patients stand to benefit from prevention of Osteoporosis (low bone density) which will occur over many years, if untreated, and which cannot be fully repaired if you wait for it to occur. Early surgery in some other patients may prevent development of kidney stones, weak muscles and the insidious development of symptoms.
Nearly all patients are fit and well enough to have parathyroid surgery without any concerns.
If you are very old, have only a short life expectancy or have very serious medical problems which might make a relatively minor operation risky, then surgery may not be the best option for you.
Note; there is no medical treatment which is curative or as effective as surgery. Only in unusual circumstances would we recommend Sensipar ( Cinacalcet) instead of surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism.
