Peter Mazzaglia, MD

Peter J. Mazzaglia, MD, is associate professor of surgery in the division of endocrine surgery at Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. Mazzaglia completed his residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and practiced internal medicine for three years in Portland, Maine prior to beginning his surgical training.

After his surgical residency at Maine Medical Center, Mazzaglia completed an additional year of endocrine surgery fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he specialized in surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and pancreas. As part of this fellowship, he gained expertise in the field of surgeon-performed ultrasound. He has been certified by the American College of Surgeons as an ultrasound instructor. Thyroid and parathyroid ultrasound, as well as ultrasound-guided thyroid FNA biopsy, is now an integral part of his practice. Unique to his fellowship training at the time was also specialized instruction in the performance of retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy. When he came to Providence in 2006, he was the first surgeon in New England to routinely use this approach for adrenalectomy.

Research Highlights

• The Changing Presentation of Hyperparathyroidism Over Three Decades. Mazzaglia P J, Berber E, Siperstein A E, Milas K M.  Archives of Surgery. 2008 Mar;143(3):260-6. 
   
• Limited Value of adrenal biopsy in the evaluation of adrenal incidentaloma: A Decade of Experience.  Mazzaglia PJ, Monchik JM.  Archives of Surgery. 2009 May;144(5):465-70. 
   
• Surgeon-performed ultrasound in patients referred for thyroid disease improves patient care by minimizing performance of unnecessary procedures, and optimizing surgical treatment. Mazzaglia PJ. World Journal of Surgery. 2010 Jun;34(6):1164-70. 
   
• Level VI lymph node dissection does not decrease radioiodine uptake in patients undergoing radioiodine ablation for differentiated thyroid cancer. Yoo D, Ajmal S, Gowda S, Machan J, Monchik M, Mazzaglia PJ. World J Surg. 2012 Jun;36(6):1255-61. 
   
• The Benign Thyroid Nodule: What is the appropriate follow-up strategy? Ajmal S, Rapoport S, Ramirez Battle H, Mazzaglia P. epubJournal of the American College of Surgeons. 2015 Jan.