In Focus Parathyroidectomy and patient survival in CKD patients

The accompanying Original Article by Ivarsson K. et al. entitled 'The effect of parathyroidectomy on patient survival in secondary hyperparathyroidism ' will be published online in September 2015. Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHP) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is recognized as a key player in most of the adverse outcomes observed in this clinical setting [1, 2]. Until not much later than a decade ago, the therapy avail-able for SHP control was limited and of relatively low efficacy, so that the indication to parathyroidectomy (PTX) remained high up to the beginning of the present century [3, 4]. More re-cently, an astonishing increase in newmedical tools available to control SHP has translated into an improved control of bio-chemical parameters, with a progressive reduction in the use of PTX [5]. Despite a better biochemical control of SHP, no evi