['Successful preoperative localization plays an important role in patient selection for focused parathyroidectomy.', 'The case records of 499 consecutive patients with presumed hyperparathyroidism who underwent neck exploration were reviewed. Positive imaging patients (n = 373) had a localizing study that clearly showed a single abnormal parathyroid gland whereas negative imaging patients (n = 44) failed to localize or had discordant imaging results.', 'Positive imaging patients were more likely to have a single adenoma (93.0% vs 72.1%; P < .001), and were less likely to require a bilateral exploration (8.1% vs 70.4%; P < .001). Negative imaging patients required more frozen sections (.9 +/- 1.3 vs .2 +/- .7; P < .001), and longer surgical time (77.3 +/- 52.5 min vs 48.4 +/- 34.6 min; P < .001). The cure rate was significantly higher in the positive imaging group (96.0% vs 87.1%; P < .03), with no difference in the incidence of complications (3.2% vs 2.3%; P value was not significant).'] Does negative preoperative localization lead to greater resource use in the era of minimally invasive parathyroidectomy?