Two cases of ectopic mediastinal parathyroid tumor

We report successful treatment of two cases of mediastinal parathyroid tumors by performed under video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) with intraoperative methylene blue infusion. Case 1 : A forty-seven-year-old woman underwent surgery in January 2002. Thoracoscopic extirpation of mediastinal parathyroid adenoma with thymic tissue was performed. Case 2 : A fifty-five-year-old man with mediastinal and the metastases from parathyroid cancer underwent thoracoscopic partial resection of the left upper lobe and dissection of the mediastinal lymph node in May 2001. In each case, ectopic mediastinal parathyroid tumor was dyed blue by methylene blue facilitating identification of these lesions. These cases showed that intraoperative methylene blue infusion is useful for detection of mediastinal parathyroid tumor during surgery. This method, therefore, will facilitate video-assisted surgery for ectopic mediastinal parathyroid tumor.