[Pheochromocytoma: report of 40 cases]

Forty cases of pheochromocytoma were treated surgically in our hospital from 1965 to 1992. The tumors in the adrenal were noted in 32 cases and outside the adrenal in 8. 38 cases had benign tumors, 1 malignant tumor and 1 sympathetic ganglioma. After the operation, blood pressure normalized in 33 cases and fell obviously but still high in 7 cases. It is a simply selective method for diagnosis of pheochromocytoma by assay of VMA in 24 hours urine sample of the patients with typical clinical symptoms.