YES! They will ALWAYS look at all four glands, but remove only the abnormal parathyroid adenoma. The reason to look at all four glands is that up to 15% of patients can have “double adenomas” or more than one abnormal parathyroid gland. If other glands appear abnormal, Dr. Brady perform a biopsy of them and send the sample to the pathologist. If the intraoperative pathology confirms hypercellular (too many cells) parathyroid tissue, she will remove the gland. If not, Dr Brady will preserve it.