Surgical outcome of trans-sphenoidal approach to pituitary adenoma in adult patients: 10 years experience in northwest of Iran

Pituitary adenoma (PA) is a frequent intracranial lesion, that needs surgical evacuation. In this study, we  evaluated the surgical outcome of PA treated via endoscopic and microscopic  trans-sphenoidal approach

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we evaluate ten years of PA surgery experience  in the northwest of Iran. 721 patients underwent trans sphenoidal surgery of PA. Complication of the surgery, extension of tumors resection, demographic and clinical findings (gender, age , tumor type ,..) were reviewed in this study. SPSS version 25 and statistical tests including chi square and T-test were used. P-value ˂0.5 was considered as statistically significant.

483 males (58.9%) and 336 females (41.02%) were included in this study. Mean age of patients was 47.3±1.96 years.The most common initial complaints were deterioration of vision (n=528, 64.4%) and headache (n=343, 41.88%), followed by accelerated development (n=254, 31.01%), amenorrhea and galactorrhea (n=253, 30.8%). 57 (6.95%) patients had symptoms of Cushing’s disease. 105 (12.8%) patients had acromegaly. TR was achieved in 87.5% of cases and sub-TR in 103 (12.5%) cases and no patient had a partial or insufficient resection. After surgery, the endocrine function was normalized in 76 (31.7%) patients who had preoperative hyper hormonal levels. 36 (4.3%) patients developed postoperative CSF leakage; of which, 4 (0.48 %) patients did not improve by lumbar drainage and other conservative treatments  and needed reoperation for reconstruction of the skull base.

The combination of microscopic and endoscopic trans-sphenoidal approach in PA surgery can be lead to total resection of tumors.