Objective To explore the application value of intraoperative gamma detector in patients with chronic kidney disease secondary hyperparathyroidism (sHPT) undergoing total parathyroidectomy (tPTX)+auto transplantation (AT). Methods A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 110 sHPT patients who received tPTX+AT at Northern Jiangsu Province People’s Hospital from July 2014 to June 2019 was performed. Among them, 80 patients underwent tPTX+AT guided by the gamma detector during the operation (observation group), 30 patients underwent tPTX+AT under routine exploration (control group). We compared the operation time, number of parathyroid glands removed, serum intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) concentration, serum calcium and phosphorus levels, as well as the occurrence of postoperative complications and recurrence rate were compared between the two groups. Results The number of parathyroid glands removed of the control group was lower than that of the observation group [(3.87±0.35) per case vs. (4.01±0.11) per case, P<0.05], but the operation time of the control group was longer [(115±25) min vs. (75±27) min, P<0.05]. Postoperative iPTH, serum calcium and serum phosphorus levels were significantly reduced in all patients. After the operation, the symptoms of pruritus, bone pain, and muscle weakness were relieved or disappeared. There was no death, dysphagia, drinking water choking cough, and superior laryngeal nerve injury occurred. One patient in the observation group and one patient in the control group had hoarseness, and one patient in the control group had cervical incision bleeding; one patient in the observation group and four patients in the control group suffered short-term postoperative recurrence due to incomplete parathyroidectomy. There was no significant difference in the incidence of complications (χ2=2.413, P>0.05), but the short-term postoperative recurrence rate of the observation group was lower than that of the control group (χ2=7.342, P<0.05). Conclusion Gamma detector is helpful for rapid identification of typical hyperplasia and ectopic parathyroid glands during operation, and can improve the accuracy of tPTX , save operation time, and reduce the recurrence.