Preface

I am pleased to introduce you to this focused issue of Gland Surgery on post-thyroidectomy parathyroid failure. During the last 15 years the number of published papers dealing with post-thyroidectomy hypoparathyroidism has trebled, most probably because total thyroidectomy has become a preferred surgical technique for the management of both bilateral benign disease and thyroid malignancies. This rising interest is also consistent with the fact that postoperative hypocalcemia is currently the most common adverse effect of thyroidectomy. It is time to have a reference monograph on this subject in order to better understand its causes and improve our surgical technique and our patients’ outcomes.