Despite recent advances in imaging and surgical methods, many
patients with hyperparathyroidism continue to go to the operating
room without their surgeons knowing where their abnormal parathyroid
glands are located. In the article titled “Virtual neck exploration
for parathyroid adenomas: a first step toward minimally invasive image-guided
surgery,” D’Agostino and colleagues1 have provided a clear presentation of their
use of multiple methods of enhanced 3-dimensional (3D) rendering to
improve the ability to identify the location of parathyroid adenomas.
Although the authors acknowledged that current 3D rendering techniques
are time consuming and labor intensive, this study illustrates 2 important
concepts. (1) The data gathered through conventional imaging techniques
can be manipulated and reinterpreted to allow us to see things that
we had not previously noticed. (2) Sometimes costly techniques must
be fully explored to evaluate the potential benefits.