• Abdulrazag Ajlan, Khadeejah A Almufawez, Abdulrahman Albakr, Laurence Katznelson, and Griffith R Harsh.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: DR_AJLAN79@hotmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2018 Apr 1; 112: e869-e875.

IntroductionHormonal insufficiency of 1 or more pituitary axes can appear after pituitary surgery. Adrenal axis impairment after surgery can lead to serious consequences if not identified and treated.ObjectiveAssess early and late postoperative adrenal insufficiency (AI) and identify the risk factors predicting their occurrence after endoscopic transsphenoidal resection of pituitary adenomas.MethodRetrospective review identified 176 pituitary adenomas resected using an endoscopic transsphenoidal approach. Patients taking steroids preoperatively, Cushing disease patients, and patients with incomplete records were excluded. Sixty-nine patients were excluded according to our exclusion criteria.ResultsThe study group thus included 107 patients (total of 111 operations). The median age was 50 years (range, 18-89 years). The median duration of follow-up was 30 months (range, 6-74 months). Eighty-three patients (74.7%) had macroadenomas, and 89 (59.3%) had nonfunctional adenomas. Of the 111 procedures, 61 patients (55%) had early AI. Of the 61 patients, 48 patients (79%) were not taking steroids in long-term follow-up, and only 13 (21%) required long-term replacement. Sixteen of the patients undergoing 111 procedures (14.4%) had AI on long-term follow-up. Of those 16 patients, 13 were already taking steroids and 3 had new diagnoses of AI. Age, male gender, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks were associated with persistent postoperative AI (P = 0.018, P = 0.001, P = 0.007, respectively).ConclusionHypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis insufficiency is common after endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery. Male gender, age greater than 50 years, visual impairment, and intraoperative CSF leak were correlated with late postoperative AI. More than two thirds of patients in whom early AI developed did not require steroids in the long term.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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