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Updated: Jul 12, 2025
Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Approach: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas
Published on: January 17, 2018
COMPARISON OF TRANSCRANIAL AND TRANSSPHENOIDAL APPROACHES IN INTRA AND SUPRASELLAR PITUITARY ADENOMAS - SYSTEMATIC
C Toader1,2, B G Bratu1, A G Mohan3,4
1"Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy - Department of Neurosurgery.
Context:
Pituitary adenomas are benign tumors, usually found in men in their 3rd and 5th decades of life, representing 10-15% of all intracranial tumors. The clinical manifestations include important endocrinological disturbances and visual impairment.
Objective:
This study aimed to determine the most suitable neurosurgical approach regarding the dimensions, extensions and invasiveness of tumor extensions.
Design:
This was a systematic review of the literature from 2002-2022, focused on clinical outcome, especially endocrinological state according to the surgical approach.
Subjects And Methods:
We performed an advanced search on Web of Science and PubMed databases on October 10th, 2022. The literature showed 300 studies in the last 20 years, and after we applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria's, 19 studies were fully read and analyzed.
Results:
Postoperative complications were reviewed in each surgical approach group, including visual impairment, new endocrinological disturbances, diabetes insipidus and cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Analyze of the endocrinological findings did not determined differences in transcranial groups from transsphenoidal groups. Overall complications were identified in the transcranial cohorts, while cerebrospinal fluid leakage still represent the main problem in transsphenoidal groups. The majority of studies found included extended endoscopic transsphenoidal approach, which shows results of great potential.
Conclusions:
For the surgical treatment of pituitary adenoma, transsphenoidal procedure with or without extended approaches is preferred, but they're cases when a craniotomy is mandatory for a feasible gross tumor resection. Combined "above and below" simultaneous procedure or a two-staged intervention is recommended for giant pituitary adenoma, to maximize tumor resection and lower the risk of cerebrospinal fluid leakage.
