Parathyroid microautotransplantation and the viscerovertebral angle.

Conservation of physiologic values of circulating parathormone is a surgical objective in those instances in which a hyperfunctional parathyroid state exists as well as in those instances in which cervical evisceration employed as an ablative measure for the management of neoplastic disease threatens to impose postoperative tetany. Because the parathyroid glands may vary in number and in anatomic sites, a predictable and reproducible surgical approach that permits the operator an avenue of access to these structures is used. The viscerovertebral angle provides a surgical modality which facilitates the operative effort. The method has been applied in more than 70 patients.