How to Choose a Parathyroid Surgeon

By Dr. Michael Yeh, UCLA Health Endocrine Surgery

Hi, I’m Dr. Michael Yeh from UCLA Health Endocrine Surgery. Today I want to talk about how to choose a parathyroid surgeon. This can be a very challenging topic, because unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation on the internet, and it’s hard for the average person to make sense of it all. I’ll do my best to make this simple.

So, how would I choose a parathyroid surgeon?

First and foremost, it’s a numbers game. You want someone who performs a significant number of these operations on a regular basis—ideally someone who has been doing this for several years. Why? Because it takes time to build up a mental library of all the different variations in parathyroid gland anatomy.

You may know from your own reading that the parathyroid glands are among the most variable structures in the human body. During fetal development, the parathyroid glands begin near the ears and migrate down to the neck. That long migration path means they can end up in a wide variety of locations. As a result, a skilled parathyroid surgeon must have a deep and practical understanding of embryology and anatomical variation, and that knowledge comes only with experience.

How many surgeries are enough to be considered an expert? If I were choosing a surgeon, I’d want someone who performs at least one parathyroid operation per week. Here at UCLA, we do up to nine parathyroid operations per day. In fact, parathyroidectomy is now the most commonly performed operation at our entire medical center. It’s remarkable, but it reflects our dedication and experience in this area.

Another important consideration is whether the surgeon or institution uses dedicated imaging for parathyroid disease. At UCLA, we use 4D CT scanning, which significantly improves surgical precision by giving us a clear roadmap before we even make the first incision.

Dedicated imaging is not just helpful—it’s a sign of a high-volume practice. It’s a resource that institutions only invest in when they handle a large number of parathyroid cases. The same goes for intraoperative PTH assays. These real-time hormone measurements confirm whether the problematic gland has been successfully removed during surgery. It’s an expensive tool, but one that we believe in because it leads to better outcomes and more efficient operations. And again, you don’t make that investment unless you’re doing a lot of these procedures.

To summarize:

Choose a surgeon who performs parathyroid surgery frequently—ideally once a week or more.
Look for a long track record and evidence of experience.
Find a center with dedicated parathyroid imaging, like 4D CT.
Ask if they use intraoperative PTH testing—another hallmark of a serious, high-volume practice.
Remember: parathyroid surgery is a finesse operation with one of the longest learning curves in surgery. Even after thousands of operations, new cases can still be challenging.

If you found this information helpful, I invite you to check out our other content on the benefits of parathyroid surgery and parathyroid surgery strategy.