Giant parathyroid adenoma: a rare cause of severe hypercalcemia

We report the case of a 37-year-old woman that developed severe hypercalcemia due to a parathyroid gland mass. After the initial medical treatment, only a minimal reduction of calcemia was observed and her clinical condition worsened; thus, she required continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) that resulted in the normalization of calcium serum level. She then underwent a left thyroid lobectomy with exeresis of the associated parathyroid glands; the histological diagnosis revealed a giant parathyroid adenoma (GPA). CRRT, initially recommended only in case of severe refractory hypercalcemia poorly responsive to pharmacological approaches, is now being evaluated in the first line treatment of life-threatening cases, with or without associated acute kidney injury (AKI).