The frequency of postoperative hypoglycemia after pheochromocytoma surgery is decreasing

Hypoglycemia after pheochromocytoma resection is one of the most common postoperative complications, with a reported incidence of 12%-43%. In recent years, we have rarely experienced postoperative hypoglycemia after pheochromocytoma surgery at our institution. We reviewed our own experience and examined factors associated with postoperative hypoglycemia in pheochromocytoma patients.

We collected and retrospectively reviewed medical information from 53 patients with pheochromocytoma who underwent initial surgery in our department between 1996 and 2022, who did not receive steroids in the perioperative period and received the same alpha-blocker preoperatively. Subjects were divided into two groups by the midpoint of the study period: Group 1 (G1), 1996-2009; and Group 2 (G2), 2010-2022. The two groups were compared.

Hypoglycemia occurred significantly less often in G2 (0 patients, 0%) than in G1 (7 patients, 28%; p = 0.003). Preoperative diabetes was significantly less frequent in G2 (2 patient, 7.1%) than in G1 (8 patients, 32%; p = 0.03). Preoperative alpha-blocker dosage was significantly higher in G2 than in G1 (p = 0.04). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only alpha-blockers dosage was significantly associated with the occurrence of postoperative hypoglycemia (p = 0.004).

The current study suggest that the alpha-blocker dosage might be related to the lower incidence of postoperative hypoglycemia in Pheochromocytoma patients.