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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Approach: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas
Published on: January 17, 2018
Surgical Technique: Endoscopic Endonasal Transphenoidal Resection of a Large Suprasellar Mixed Germ Cell Tumor
Olaide Ajayi1, Vikram Chakravarthy1, George Hanna1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Abstract:
The endoscopic endonasal transphenoidal approach has proven to be a very versatile surgical approach for the resection of small midline skull base tumors. This is due to its minimally invasive nature, the potentially fewer neurological complications, and lower morbidity in comparison to traditional craniotomies. This surgical approach has been less commonly utilized for large midline tumors such as suprasellar germ cell tumors, due to numerous reasons including the surgeon's comfort with the surgical approach, a higher chance of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, limited visualization due to arterial/venous bleeding, and limited working space. We present our surgical technique in the case of a large suprasellar and third ventricular mixed germ cell tumor that was resected via an endoscopic endonasal approach with favorable neurological outcome and no postoperative CSF leak.

