Adrenal lesions assessed in the era of laparoscopic adrenalectomy: a modern day series
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J Chavez-Rodriguez1, Janice L Pasieka
1Department of Surgery, University of Calgary, 1403 29th St. N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 2T9.
Background:
To evaluate if laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) has changed the indications for adrenalectomy.
Methods:
Retrospective analysis of patients with adrenal lesions referred from 1992 to 2004. Patients were divided into 2 groups, those before and those after the introduction of LA.
Results:
One hundred eighty patients were assessed. Functioning lesions were found in 120 (66%) patients. Sixty patients had nonfunctioning tumors. Before the introduction of LA, 13% had primary hyperaldosteronism (PA), 23% had pheochromocytoma (Pheo), 20% had Cushing's syndrome (CS), and 7% had adrenal cortical cancer (ACC). No difference was seen in the percentage of patients referred after LA with Pheo (20%), CS (16%), or ACC (6%). There was, however, a significant increase in the percentage of patients referred with PA after introducing LA (13% vs. 27%), P < .05.
Conclusion:
Indications for adrenalectomy have not changed since introduction of LA. There was, however, an increased percentage of patients with PA referred since the introduction of LA.
