Endocrine surgery treats diseases that affect the endocrine glands and require surgical treatment, including the thyroid, parathyroid glands and adrenal glands. These glands produce hormones and release them into the bloodstream. They contribute to the regulation of many functions of the human body.
Over the past ten years, the number of operations performed at the HUG has steadily increased and tripled. The HUG is the leading Swiss center in this area, performing more than 300 thyroid and parathyroid surgeries each year.
While thyroid cancer is one of the most frequently treated diseases, rare conditions are also treated. Since 2018, the Division has participated in Eurocrine, the European quality registry for the documentation of endocrine surgery operations and their results.
State-of-the-art, minimally invasive surgery involving fewer complications.
Through the development of new minimally invasive surgical techniques, endocrine surgery has evolved dramatically in recent years. Neuromonitoring, for example, helps preserve the nerves (especially the recurrent nerve, i.e. the voice nerve) by monitoring them during operations. The HUG uses this technique on a regular basis for surgical operations on the thyroid and the parathyroid glands. Visualization of the inside of the abdomen by laparoscopy is the procedure of choice for surgeries on the adrenal glands.
The Thoracic and Endocrine Surgery Division at the HUG conducts important research to develop these types of approaches. It was one of the first centers in the world to introduce a new angiography-based surgical technique to preserve the function of the parathyroid glands during thyroid removal (fluorescence imaging). This method decreases the risk of complications and offers better quality of life to patients.
Learn more: Press release "Parathyroid angiography, a world first"