[Thoracoabdominal approach for adrenal pheochromocytoma]

In the case of surgical approaches for adrenal pheochromocytoma, successful ligation and severance of the adrenal vein at the start can make intraoperative circulatory kinetics stable and subsequent operative procedures very easy. Recently, we adopted a thoracoabdominal approach in 5 cases of pheochromocytoma instead of transabdominal or translumbar approach which has so far been adopted for such tumors. The results revealed that the thoracoabdominal approach was very advantageous compared with these conventional approaches. Its main advantages include a wide and shallow operative field, early ligation and severance of the adrenal vein before mobilization of the tumor, easy operative procedure and short operation time, etc. The essential point is to carry out an operation not in a torqued flank-position but in a correct flank-position.