[Pheochromocytoma: review of 22 patients and 23 operations]

Twenty-two cases of pheochromocytoma encountered at our department between 1965 and 1986 are reviewed. Eighteen of the patients were adults (26 to 62 years old) and 4 were children (9 to 13 years old). Thirteen were males and 9 were females. In a total of 23 operative procedures, 31 tumors were resected excluding lymph node metastasis. The preoperative accuracy of the diagnostic methods for locating the tumor was as follows. KUB and intravenous pyelography with tomography in 12 of 31 tumors (39%), aortography and/or selective arteriography in 21 of 27 (78%), selective venous sampling for catecholamine level in 4 of 4 (100%), computed tomography in 10 of 10 (100%), ultrasonography in 4 of 6 (67%), and iodine-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy in 4 of 6 (67%) tumors. The tumors resected were cases, as followings, a single unilateral adrenal tumor in 14 (right 6, left 8), bilateral adrenal tumors, bilateral adrenal plus extraadrenal tumors and unilateral adrenal plus extraadrenal in each, one case and extraadrenal tumor in six cases (single 5, multiple 1). Either lumbar or thoracolumbar surgery methods were adapted in 9 of 14 cases with single adrenal and one of 5 with single extraadrenal tumors, and in the remaining 13 cases transperitoneal methods were selected. One patient died on the 6th day after operation from gastrointestinal bleeding. Thus the surgical mortality rate in our series was 4.4%. Of the 3 patients with malignant pheochromocytoma, two (9 and 13 years old) are alive each 192 and 67 months after operation. The former is in a tumor-free condition, however in the latter multiple bone metastasis was detected 37 months after operation. The third patient (29 years old) died 62 months after operation from metastatic hemorrhagic tumors in the liver.