[Surgical results and clinical analysis of 19 cases of acromegaly]

The authors have been analyzed the results from 19 patients who underwent transsphenoidal microsurgery for their pituitary adenomas. All of the patients showed some degree of clinical improvement after surgery. Surgical complications seemed to be negligible except one patient who had suffered from persistent diabetes insipidus postoperatively. The results in terms of postoperative GH levels were almost good in 17 patients in whom preoperative GH levels had been below 100 ng/ml. There was no relationship between postoperative GH values and tumor grades or types (in Hardy's classification) in this group of patients. In 12 of them, postoperative GH values fell and remained below 5 ng/ml, although abnormal GH responses to dynamic testing were still noted. On the other hand, the results were particularly poor in the remaining 2 patients in whom preoperative GH levels had been higher than 100 ng/ml. Postsurgical radiation therapy was applied to 5 cases. Postirradiation GH values decreased in all 5 cases, but did not reach to the normal level (below 5 ng/ml) in 3 of them.