Know Your Parathyroid Glands By.Dr Harold Gunatilake You are aware of the thyroid glands that sits on your trachea (wind-pipe) in the lower part of your neck, but you are not aware that attached to the four corners of the thyroid lobes behind, are 4 minute yellow spots which needs preservation even when your thyroid glands are removed for nodular enlargement or other disease processes. When you remove your thyroid gland the surgeons call it a subtotal or partial thyroidectomy because the need to remove the gland close to the parathyroid must be preserved. These glands are hidden behind the thyroid lobes. Parathyroid glands though they are small and insignificant play a great role in the endocrine orchestra. ...