The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis therapeutic grand rounds no. 13. Cushing disease.
Although several effective therapies for Cushing disease have been demonstrated, associated complications, side-effects, and production of adrenal insufficiency indicate the continuing need for a completely satisfactory treatment. Of the surgical approaches to the adrenal gland, total adrenalectomy offers the most predictable amelioration, but is necessitates lifelong replacement and augmentation therapy and can be followed by progressive sella enlargement and hyperpigmentation. Drugs can inhibit adrenal steroid biosynthesis or selectively destroy the zona fasciculata. Inhibitors can be overwhelmed by endogenous ACTH increases, and cause variable electrolyte changes and side-effects. The adrenocorticolytic drug (o,pDDD) is slow in onset, irreversibly destroys adrenocortical reserve, and is poorly tolerated in the gastrointestinal tract. Conventional pituitary irradiation is unpredictably effective in only half of the cases, but is not often followed by the serious neurologic sequelae and hypopitiutarism observed after implantation and heavy particle therapy. Selective hypophysectomy via modern techniques is relatively new, but apparently offers a direct, and possibly, definitive therapeutic option in this disorder.
D000328:Adult; D003480:Cushing Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000532:radiotherapy; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans
D003907:Dexamethasone