CASE REPORTS

HYPOPARATHYROIDISM is a condition which the internist meets fairly com-monly. It generally results from the inadvertent removal of one or more para-thyroid glands in the process of thyroid operations, more rarely after the pur-poseful removal of one or more adenomatous or hyperplastic parathyroid glands to alleviate hyperparathyroidism. The metabolic and chemical abnormalities of hypoparathyroidism were clearly defined by Albright and Ellsworth in 1929.1 Since that time much has been added to our knowledge of the therapy for this condition; and an especially valuable recent addition to our therapeutic armamentarium is dihydrotachysterol ( A. T. 10).2,3,4,5,18 Very rarely one sees patients with hypoparathyroidism who have undergone no surgical procedures in the cervical region, and in whom the etiology of the parathyroid insufficiency is completely unknown. The group at the Massachu-setts General Hospi ta l 6 has recently reviewed the literature on this condition and added six cases of their own. W e were fortunate during the past year i