OBJECTIVE. This article discusses the commonly used techniques for imaging the parathyroid glands and their role in the preoperative evaluation of patients with primary hyper parathyroidism.
CONCLUSION. The importance of sonography and sestamibi scintigraphy in the preop-erative evaluation of patients with primary hyperthyroidism has increased with the adoption of minimally invasive parathyroidectomy techniques at most medical centers. When the results of these studies are concordant, the cure rates of minimally invasive surgery equal those of tradi-tional bilateral neck exploration.