The Different Ways To Treat Hypercalcemia

Hypercalcemia is a medical condition with many underlying causes. The main thing all individuals with hypercalcemia have is an excessive amount of calcium in the blood. The excessive amounts of calcium in the blood can be very problematic. It can upset the normal balance of electrolytes throughout the body, causing excessive thirst, extreme urination, nausea, and fatigue. High levels of calcium can also be quite damaging because they can cause kidney stones, easily broken bones, and mental confusion to develop. If you have hypercalcemia, there may be a few different treatment options depending on the cause of this health problem and the severity of your condition. Get to know the treatments now.

Surgery To Treat Hyperparathyroidism

The majority of hypercalcemia cases are caused by hyperparathyroidism, which occurs when the parathyroid glands begin to produce too much of the parathyroid hormone responsible for regulating calcium levels in the bloodstream. If you have overactive parathyroid glands, one very effective option for treatment is surgery. This surgical procedure is called a parathyroidectomy and involves removing one or more of the four parathyroid glands. The process is very safe and simple. Doctors perform it on patients while they are under general anesthesia at the hospital, and patients can normally go back home the same day. The incisions are typically a few inches long, though new techniques are resulting in even smaller surgical sites. If you had hyperparathyroidism and leave behind some of the parathyroid glands after the surgery, the reduced number of glands will be enough to provide your body with proper levels of parathyroid hormone.

Continue reading to reveal more ways in which hypercalcemia can be treated.

Watch And Wait

Doctors may recommend a watch and wait treatment method for patients with mild cases of hypercalcemia. As this name implies, the treatment for this sort of case is just to wait and see what happens while carefully monitoring the patient's condition. Keep in mind this sort of treatment is not the same thing as doing nothing. Patients still need to get regular doctor's visits to test the amount of calcium in their blood. Calcium levels can sharply rise over a short period, which is why monitoring is necessary. Doctors might also recommend doing some further medical testing to see what is causing the patient's hypercalcemia to develop during this period as well. Patients will also require tests to see how the kidneys are functioning because even slightly increased calcium levels can cause problems. This sort of treatment is typically only advisable for a short time, however. It is common for calcium levels to go back down on their own, but if this does not happen, more drastic treatment may be required.

It's time to reveal the next treatment option for hypercalcemia.