Anesthetic considerations on adrenal gland surgery

Adrenal gland surgery needs a multidisciplinary team including endocrinologist, radiologist, anesthesiologist, and surgeon. The indications for adrenal gland surgery include hormonal secreting and non-hormonal secreting tumors. Adrenal hormonal secreting tumors present to the anesthesiologist unique challenges requiring good preoperative evaluation, perioperative hemodynamic control, corrections of all electrolytes and metabolic abnormalities, a detailed and careful anesthetic strategy, overall knowledge about the specific diseases, control and maintaining of postoperative adrenal function, and finally a good collaboration with other involved colleagues. This review will focus on the endocrine issues, as well as on the above-mentioned aspects of anesthetic management during hormone secreting adrenal gland tumor resection.