Primary and Secondary Hyperparathyroidism

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS In 1891 Recklinghausen1adescribed a curious disease of bone characterized by destruction and repair, marked softening of the bones and the presence of odd cysts. He recognized the similarity of his cases to that described by Engel1bsome twenty-seven years previously. Recklinghausen was not aware of any endocrine disorder associated with the bony changes which he described. As a matter of fact, during the course of the next number of years many pathologists2noted tumors of the parathyroid glands in the presence of certain kinds of bone disease but failed to grasp the etiologic relationship between the two. Erdheim3was probably the first to recognize more than a casual relationship between the bony changes and the hyperplasia of the parathyroid glands in cases of osteomalacia, although his explanation of the observed phenomena later proved to be inadequate. It is easy to understand the early