The Hospital Quirónsalud Marbella becomes the first private hospital in Andalusia to incorporate the revolutionary device PTeye™designed to identify the parathyroid glands with high precision during thyroid surgery. This tool represents a major technological leap in endocrine surgery by allowing better preservation of healthy tissue and minimising complications.
"The use of the PTeye™ represents a key advance in this type of surgery, as one of the main challenges is to avoid inadvertently damaging the parathyroid glands," explains the Dr Dieter Moralesa specialist in the Endocrine Surgery Unit at the centre in Malaga.
These small glands - four in total - are closely related to the thyroid gland and play an essential role in regulating calcium in the body. Damage to them can lead to hypoparathyroidism, a condition that forces patients to take lifelong medication and, in some cases, can aggravate conditions such as osteoporosis.
The PTeye™ employs fluorescence technology to differentiate parathyroid tissue from thyroid tissue. "This probe emits a signal that allows a precise image to be generated, as parathyroid tissue fluoresces more intensely than thyroid tissue," says Dr Morales.
The hospital's Endocrine Surgery Unit has already integrated this innovation systematically in all its thyroid surgeries, as well as in cases of parathyroid adenomas. Although they began exploring the device at the end of 2024, it is only now that the centre has shared the first results, which will also be presented this May at the Congress of the European Society of Endocrine Surgeonswhich takes place in Turkey.
This technological incorporation is in addition to other advanced practices such as the recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoringthe use of state-of-the-art haemostasis devicesthe vocal cord ultrasound and working together with a multidisciplinary team composed of endocrinologists, pathologists, oncologists and radiologists. All this positions the hospital as a national benchmark in complex endocrine and oncological surgery.
The Endocrine Surgery Unit is part of the General and Digestive System Surgery Service, directed by the Dr. Enrique Aycart. This team, composed of ten surgeonsThe 1,000 interventions per yearThe clinic offers an advanced approach that includes laparoscopic surgery for liver, pancreatic, colorectal, reflux, hernia and adrenal pathologies. Many of these procedures are performed on an outpatient basis. Major Outpatient Surgeryallowing the patient to return home the same day.
The Dr Dieter Moralesresponsible for this innovative surgical line, is associate lecturer at the University of Malaga, European Board in Endocrine and Emergency Surgery, member for Andalusia in the Endocrine Surgery Section of the Spanish Association of Surgeons, y current president of the Spanish Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.
