A sterile hand-held component of an intraoperative parathyroid detection system designed to aid surgeons in recognizing parathyroid tissue during open surgical thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies using near-infrared (NIR) light and auto-fluorescence. The probe consists of a fibreoptic element that emits non-ionizing radiation in the near IR range (NIR), and another fibreoptic detector element for collection and transmission of the fluorescence emitted by the tissue to a photo detector. It is used with a dedicated control unit (not included). This is a single-use device.