MIRP SURGERY FOR HYPERPARATHYROIDISM

I am also looking for a MIRP surgeon in the Midwest, if you come up with any. So far, I have seen that it is done at Stanford Univ in CA and also a doctor in Houston.

I have the same question,, wish i could find answer

I am due to have minimally invasive surgery and have had the sestimibi scan to locate the parathyroid, but my surgeon does not do MIRP. I also can not seem to find anyone in the NY area that does this. Did any of you find an answer?

If the sestamibi located the adenoma you don't really need the radio guided procedure. The radio want helps the surgeon locate the gland. If it showed up on the sestamibi, the wand shouldn't be needed. I would definitely advise the minimally invasive procedure though. Did you NY folks check out Columbia Univ? mass

Hi:

I went to Dr. William Farrar at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. My first surgery was
bad and done by a quack surgeon here in Columbus who didn't know how to find my bad gland so
he removed two perfectly normal glands instead.

I then found out about Dr. Farrar on the internet, and he was very good. He located the bad gland
which was in my chest area and removed it. Now, I am only having to take calcium pills but feeling
great.

I don't know if he does the MIPR surgery but you could call his office and find out. Their number is
614-293-8890.

Bob

Wow Bob, I can't believe what happened to you at that other surgeon! Can you tell me a little more detail about what happened? I'm sure that oyu can't get into specifics but I'd really like to hear more about what happened. Thanks!

Hi: I went to an Endocrinologist for a second opinion and he also said that I needed surgery for

my hyperparathyroidism and he referred me to a surgeon who operates here in Columbus, Ohio at

Riverside Hospital. His name was Dr. Michael D. Martyn of Ohio ENT Surgeons. He put me at ease

and said he had performed hundreds of these types of surgeries. He said that the surgery could

take anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours, hopefully it would take the shorter time.



He didn't require me to go and have any thyroid or parathyroid scans. He set up my surgery for Oct. 29, 2008. The surgery took about two and a half hours and afterwards, he told my wife he hoped he

got the bad gland. But after six weeks later, my calcium levels remained the same which told me

in fact that he didn't remove the bad gland, I began to really worry.



He then sent me for an Xray of my thyroid/parathyroid gland and when he got the results, he said

they really didn't show a lot so I asked him what he recommended and he said to have another

surgery where he would take out half of my thyroid gland and HOPEFULLY find the bad parathyroid

gland embedded there and remove it. It was then that I realized that he did'nt know what the hell

he was doing and I told him he would not touch me again at all!!!!!!!!!



I became really worried by now so my wife and I got on the internet to search for another surgeon

hopefully somewhere in this area. Well, we came up with the name of Dr. William Farrar who is a

well known surgeon at the James Cancer Hospital here in Columbus. I made an appointment with him

and he seemed to know at the first appointment that the bad gland could be in my chest area. They

ran a whole series of more tests and I had surgery again in March,2009. He removed the bad gland

in one hour and a half and everything went great. He said that Dr. Martyn removed two completely

normal glands and he would have done more damage if I let him operate again. He had no clue what

he was doing!!!!



It is very important to know who is doing your surgery but I believed my doctor in this case and it

turned out that he made a bad decision and I was the one who paid for it!!!!



I would recommend that anyone considering this surgery should definitely do research and try to

get the best surgeon available to do the job. Sometimes these glands are not just located right

around the thyroid, they can be in several other areas and the surgeon should definitely know this.



Thanks for asking!



Bob

Wow, Bob, that's quite the experience! THanks for sharing it. I am sure that it was very scary for you at the time but it sounds to me like you handled everything well. Not that it's any of my business but are you thinking of going forward with a malpractice suit? I think that might be a good idea!

No, I talked with two lawyers and they said that I really wouldn't have a case unless I could get
Dr. Farrar to write me a letter saying that the other surgeon did an unnecessary surgery on me,
and I thought about it and decided not even to ask him to get involved. I don't think he would want
to anyway because you know how these doctors stick together!


However, I did file a formal complaint against Dr. Martyn with the State Medical Board of Ohio,
and also wrote a letter to the Chief of Surgery at Riverside Hospital here in Columbus, where
he operated on me and he is on their board of surgeons.

I will have to leave it at that and move on with my life.

Thanks for your interest.

Bob

Yeah, I know that sometimes doctors would be afraid to throw another under the bus so yeah, I seem to think that you went with the right course of action. Thanks for sharing your story with me.

Wow Bob, what an experience!

I am scheduled to have Dr. Farrar perform my parathyroidectemy. He does do MIRP. I also had a surgery done by Dr. Martyn last summer to have my tonsils removed and he did a great job, but when I called his office to ask about the parathyroid, I know he wasn't the right doctor for this operation. The endocrinologists at OSU are amazing. I am 23 years old and have spend the past year trying to convince 3 different endocrinologists and numerous PCPs that I have hyperparathyroidism, all to no avail, until I went to OSU endocrinology. If you're near Ohio, I would say Dr. Farrar is the best bet.

Bob, how big was your incision from surgery by Dr. Farrar and how was your recovery? Thanks for your posts!

Hi I'm Barb,
63 female and scared to death. I was just told I probably have Thyroid Cancer. I just made an appointment with Dr. Farrar, so reading this has made me feel a little better. Any information you can share would be great.

Dr. Thompson in overland park kansas, I believe does the mirp surgery