Abstract

A 65-year-old woman with a history of a left heminephrectomy for renal carcinoma developed hypercalcaemia 11 years after the operation. The same kidney was found to contain a recurrent renal carcinoma. After the radical nephrectomy of the left kidney, hypercalcaemia remitted but reappeared 11 months later. The right kidney was small but functioned at a level of creatinine clearance of 10--15 ml/min. Metastatic work-up was negative, and secondary causes of hypercalcaemia were excluded. A neck exploration revealed a parathyroid adenoma. With parathyroid resection the serum calcium declined to normal, and the risk of hypercalcaemic nephropathy in the remaining kidney was precluded.