The challenge of the middle mediastinal parathyroid

In most cases of persistent or recurrent hyperparathyroidism (HPT), the pathological parathyroid (PT) will be in the neck or accessible through the cervical approach, and in only a small percentage will median sternotomy be required. We present 3 cases of persistent HPT where the PT tissue was in the middle mediastinum. We acknowledge that this is a rare occurrence and that it cannot be explained adequately by standard embryological teaching. In cases requiring formal mediastinal exploration, the mediastinal exploration is not complete unless the middle mediastinum is carefully explored to exclude ectopic PT tissue .