Endocrine Surgeon Encourages Patients to Consider Expert Local Care

You’ve lost weight, you can’t sleep and you get overheated easily. With these symptoms, it’s possible you have an issue with your endocrine system.

The endocrine system is responsible for regulating a host of functions through the release of hormones from several small glands throughout the body, including the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands. These functions include:

• metabolism
• growth and development
• sexual function and reproduction
• heart rate
• blood pressure
• appetite
• sleeping and waking cycles
• and body temperature

Surgery Needed? Meet Dr. Victoria Lyness

Health issues such as loss of appetite or high blood pressure may be the result of problems with the thyroid, parathyroid and/or adrenal glands. Medication is often the first line of treatment, but sometimes removal of the gland is necessary.

That’s where Victoria Lyness, MD—Valley Health’s fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon—can help. Dr. Lyness works with primary care doctors and endocrinologists to determine if surgery is needed, whether it’s the only option (as is the case with cancer) or because the person isn’t responding well to medicine.

“In the treatment of the endocrine system, patients might find they have side effects from medicine and don’t feel better after its use, either in the short-term or the long-term,” Dr. Lyness says. “These patients might want to consider surgical options.”

Surgery is often minimally invasive and takes only a couple of hours.

“Most people go home the same day after surgery and a short period of observation,” Dr. Lyness says. “Less frequently, patients stay one night in the hospital and go home the next morning.”

An Expert Close to Home

Dr. Lyness began her career at Valley Health in 2019. She is an advocate for patient education and works closely with patients and referring providers in order to facilitate complete and coordinated care. Dr. Lyness averages 100 endocrine surgeries a year—well above the 25-a-year benchmark that typically marks a physician as an expert in a surgical field.

“It’s important to choose a doctor who frequently performs your particular surgery,” she says. “You’ll have better results.”

With a robust practice in Winchester, Dr. Lyness encourages patients to consider local care before traveling far for surgery. “Patients sometimes feel they have to go to Baltimore, Charlottesville or D.C. for high-quality specialty care, when in reality we are prepared to take care of them here in Winchester,” she says. “Diagnosis and treatment of these conditions is pretty straightforward for most individuals, and I can save them the logistics of traveling far by providing comprehensive care close to home.”