Malignant hypercalcemia associated with a parathyroid macrocyst and the early genesis of a giant cell tumor

Oh, Anthony; Mojica, Pablo; Sullivan, Maureen; Tan, Dongfeng; Hicks, Wesley; Loree, Thom; Rigual, Nestor

doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2005.05.015

« Previous Next »American Journal of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Medicine and Surgery
Volume 27, Issue 1 , Pages 54-57, January 2006

Malignant hypercalcemia associated with a parathyroid macrocyst and the early genesis of a giant cell tumor

Anthony Oh, MD
- Department of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Riverside Medical Center, Riverside, CA, USA
Pablo Mojica, MD
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
Maureen Sullivan, DDS
- Department of Dental and Prosthetics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
Dongfeng Tan, MD
- Department of Pathology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
Wesley Hicks Jr., MD
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
Thom Loree, MD
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
Nestor Rigual, MD
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA. Tel.: +1 716 845 3158; fax: +1 716 845 8646.

Abstract

Parathyroid cysts rarely cause primary hyperparathyroidism. In most cases, the resultant hypercalcemia is mild and detected before any significant skeletal disease develops. We report a patient with severe hypercalcemia, a synchronous brown tumor (osteitis fibrosa cystica) of the maxilla, and a large benign functional parathyroid cyst. The unusual patient presentation and management are described and illustrated. The pertinent literature is reviewed.