Parathyroid gland insufficiency is quite rare, but can occur in different ways. The most common cause of hypoparathyroidism is the loss of the active parathyroid tissue following thyroid or parathyroid surgery. Occasionally, the specific cause of hypoparathyroidism cannot be determined. Deficient parathyroid hormone secretion can be from post surgical causes or idiopathic. Idiopathic is further divided into congenital or acquired.
Congenital hypoparathyroidism is a condition in which the person is born without parathyroid tissue.
They usually have no family history of the disease. The acquired form of the disease typically arises because the immune system had developed antibodies against the parathyroid tissues in an attempt to reject it as a foreign body. The third category, pseudohypoparathyroidism, is the resistance to parathyroid hormone. The only exception is when the inactivity of PTH is due to hypomagnesemia, which is readily treated with magnesium supplementation. According to his mom, his history started at 3 days of age when he was discovered to have multicystic dysplastic left kidney that was removed at 3 days of age.