Pre- and Postoperative Health Status of Patients with Nonfunctioning and Secretory Pituitary Adenomas and an Analysis...

To identify the characteristics of the physical and mental health status of patients with pituitary adenomas, explore the postoperative reversibility of impaired health status, and assess the impact of clinical characteristics, hormone levels, anxiety, depression, and disease stigma on health status.

We prospectively enrolled 147 and 138 patients with nonfunctioning and secretory pituitary adenomas, respectively. Health status was evaluated in 8 domains using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey before and 3 months after transsphenoidal surgery. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, the Self-Rating Depression Scale, and the Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness were used to assess the psychological status.

Compared with the healthy population reference values, general physical and mental health, social functioning, and role limitations due to physical and psychological health problems were all found to be significantly impaired in the adenoma patients. Health status was worse in patients with adrenocorticotropic hormone- (ACTH-) secreting and growth hormone- (GH-) secreting adenomas than in patients with nonfunctioning adenomas. Among the patients, 11.6% had anxiety and 30.9% had depression. Higher scores for anxiety, depression, and disease stigma; older age; higher body mass index; and tumor recurrence were independent risk factors for health status impairment in at least one domain. Physical function impairment and role limitations caused by physical health problems became worse after surgery, whereas the mental component of health status remained the same.

Health status was impaired in patients with pituitary adenomas, especially secretory adenomas. Physical function and role limitations were worse 3 months after surgery than before surgery. Mental problems, old age, obesity, and tumor recurrence reduced health status.