Operative time and postoperative pain following minimally invasive video-assisted parathyroidectomy

Mininvasive surgical techniques have been proposed to treat the patients affected by parathyroid adenoma starting by endoscopically-assisted parathyroidectomy up to video-assisted and radio-guided approaches. Our technique, minimally invasive video-assisted parathyroidectomy (MIVAP), in accord with Miccoli's technique, has been introduced in our center since 2006 after extensive experience with MIVAT (minimally invasive videoassisted thyroidectomy). From September 2006 to October 2008 we performed 32 MIVAP on 32 patients, 21 female and 11 males with a mean age of 53.4 years (range 25-77) affected by parathyroid adenoma. Patients have been divided in two groups in chronological order: Group A included the first 15 patients, Group B the second ones. Mean operative time from incision to skin closure has been 47.4+/-14.2 minutes for group A and 34+/-10.3 minutes for group B (p