The role of medical illustration in the evolution of transsphenoidal pituitary surgery
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Updated: Jul 1, 2025
Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Approach: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas
Published on: January 17, 2018
Sophie E Yu1, William B Westwood2, James G Naples3
11Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract:
Medical illustration played a crucial, yet often overlooked, role in the evolution of pituitary surgery. From the late 1800s to the present, many preeminent surgeons, in partnership with their surgical illustrator collaborators, developed and then shifted the paradigm of pituitary surgery, from an open procedure with high mortality and morbidity, to an endonasal approach with high success rates that is widely utilized today. This work aims to highlight the role of surgical illustrators as partners to their physician colleagues, creating artistically accessible road maps that shaped the development of the transsphenoidal approach.
