title: Surgical approaches for pituitary tumors.
abstract: Present methods of pituitary surgery had their inception in the late 1890s. The methods of Halsted, Cushing, and Hirsch of the early 1900s have been developed and refined for continued use today. The advent of the operating microscope and microsurgical operative techniques stimulated a renaissance of interest in transsphenoidal methods for resecting pituitary tumors. Various transsphenoidal approaches are in use today, the most popular being the sublabial transseptal method and the intranasal transseptal approach. These tedchniques lend themselves well to the resection of small intrasellar lesions, such as the prolactin-secreting microadenoma.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D009666:Nose / Q000601:surgery; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D012658:Sella Turcica / Q000601:surgery; D013101:Sphenoid Sinus / Q000601:surgery