Clinical features and outcome of surgery in 30 patients with acromegaly

To assess the surgical outcome of hypophysectomy in acromegalic patients, differences in response to surgery in micro and macroadenoma and the development of associated hormonal deficiency after surgery.

Retrospective analysis of charts of acromegalic patients who were operated upon at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, was done. Information regarding presentation, laboratory data, radiological assessment, details of surgery and postoperative outcome was recorded. Surgical outcome was classified depending on the degree of disease control after surgery as biochemical cure, remission and treatment failure.

Out of 30 patients, eighteen (60%) were males and 12 (40%) females with mean age at the time of diagnosis 35.6+/-10.4 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 3.2+/-2.4 years. Twenty-five patients had macroadenoma and five had microadenoma. Preoperative mean GH level was 42.4 ng/ml with range of 2.5 to 534 ng/ml. Following surgery, 13 had biochemical cure, 4 were in remission and 13 failed to respond. The outcome in microadenoma was better than in macroadenoma i.e. 100% vs. 32%. Preoperatively four patients had panhypopituitarism with additional six patients (20%) developing hypopituitarism postoperatively.

Our study showed that acromegaly was seen at a much earlier age, outcome of surgery was comparable to other international studies and postoperative panhypopituitarism was seen in significant number of patients. The outcome in microadenoma was better than in macroadenoma but the number of patients seen with microadenoma was small.