What kind of scar does parathyroid surgery leave you with?

A small one.: Typically, an incision for parathyroid (or most thyroid) surgery is about 3" long and follows a slightly curved skin crease just above the collarbones. In most cases, it will heal to about pencil line thickness and be noticeable only to someone looking closely at your neck, although it may be quite noticeable in the first few months.

Minimally invasive: I use a 2 CM incision (3/4 inch). They heal beautifully. The surgery is outpatient and can be done without general anesthesia. See photo one week after surgery.

Minimal : Scar an be quite minimal if you have a good, experiences surgeon who can do surgery in a minimally invasive way. If you get a good parathyroid scan that tells the surgeon exactly where to go, minimally invasive surgery is possible to minimize the scar. Quite a few patients can't find their scars a year after...

Scar length: A typical minimally invasive Parathyroidectomy will leave a 2-3 cm scar. A conventional bilateral exploratory incision could be 6 cm or larger.