Pheochromocytoma and pregnancy: report of three cases

Three cases of pheochromocytoma associated with pregnancy are reported. Two patients had adrenal pheochromocytoma coexistent with normal pregnancy and one patient had a bladder pheochromocytoma coexistent with molar pregnancy (gestational trophoblastic disease). The diagnosis was made antenatally in the two normal pregnancy patients, both underwent planned tumor resection, one at mid-trimester, complicated by postoperative miscarriage, while the other had tumor resection during cesarean section at term. Bladder pheochromocytoma, preoperatively mistaken for invasive trophoblastic tumor, was resected at the time of planned abdominal hysterectomy for molar pregnancy, pheochromocytoma was recognized only after microscopic study of the resected bladder tumor. The three patients survived with no evidence of disease.