Is there a high risk in pituitary tumor surgery?

For some patients, surgical treatment is often the most common method. As we all know, any surgery will have certain risks, and pituitary tumor surgery is no exception. One of the main risks of surgery is pituitary function damage. If you know that surgery has risks, you will not have surgery. This is also a wrong decision. Let me explain to you whether the risks of pituitary tumor surgery are high or not.

First of all, there are risks in taking anesthesia. Many people are not used to it. There are always risks during the operation, so before the operation, the doctor will ask the patient's family to sign a surgery commitment letter. But there is no need to be too anxious or nervous. The art is relatively developed now. Generally speaking, the risk is relatively small. It is best to cooperate with the doctor to have surgery. If the surgery is not timely, it will endanger life if the condition is delayed.

Damage is inevitable, and hormones can be replaced. Doctors will try their best to be "perfect" when performing pituitary tumor surgery, but in some cases it is difficult to completely avoid the loss of some normal pituitary tissue, especially when the surgery is difficult and the tumor surrounding the cavernous sinus and major blood vessels is removed.

Even experienced pituitary tumor surgery experts still have about 5-10% of patients with postoperative hypopituitarism after removing giant pituitary adenomas. In this case, the damage is usually irreparable once it occurs, and some patients may need long-term hormone replacement therapy, including thyroid hormones, corticosteroids, growth hormone, estrogen or testosterone.

Function can be partially restored, and no lifelong replacement therapy is required. After the operation, the patient will have a reaction of pituitary "injury". For example, damage to the posterior pituitary can cause diabetes insipidus (the incidence rate is between 1-2%). This is because the body fluid filtered by the kidney cannot be reabsorbed and is excreted from the body in large quantities. The urine produced by the patient is colorless and transparent like clear water, and frequent urination and thirst will also occur.

These symptoms can be replaced with synthetic antidiuretic hormone (i.e., nivolumab), which has a good effect. After the surgical trauma and inflammation subside, the pituitary function of most patients can be partially restored, and no long-term drug supplementation is required. In addition, after most of the anterior pituitary tissue of most patients is removed, the remaining anterior pituitary tissue can still secrete enough hormones for normal human activities, so surgical damage does not mean that lifelong replacement treatment is required.

With the popularization and improvement of microsurgical technology, the proportion of pituitary function damage caused by surgery is getting smaller and smaller, and the degree is getting lighter and lighter. The pituitary function of most patients can be gradually restored after surgery, and there is no need to take medication for life. Therefore, patients must actively cooperate with the doctor's treatment and maintain an optimistic attitude.