title: Pituitary insufficiency after operation of supratentorial intra- and extraaxial tumors outside of the sellar-parasellar region?
abstract: Recent studies investigating pituitary function after non-sellar brain tumor surgery showed that up to 38.2% of patients have pituitary insufficiency (PI). It has been assumed that the operation causes the PI, but preoperative hormone testing, which would have been necessary to prove this assumption, was not performed. The objective of this study is to answer the question if indeed microsurgery is the culprit of PI in patients with operatively treated non-sellar brain tumors. In this prospective trial, 54 patients with supratentorial non-sellar tumors were included. The basal levels of cortisol, prolactin, testosterone, estrogen, IGF-1, fT3, fT4, STH, TSH, ACTH, FSH, and LH were recorded preoperatively on days 1 and 7 after surgery. If basal hormone screening revealed an abnormality, a releasing hormone assay was performed. Before surgery, 24 of the 54 patients (44.4%) already had PI. Additional 25 patients showed either hypocortisolism or hypothyreoidism. As those patients had been pre-treated with dexamethasone and L-thyroxine, these findings were considered not to represent PI but drug effects. Hormone testing on days 1 and 7 after surgery revealed no changes. With 44.4% PI is a frequent finding in brain tumor patients already before surgery. The factors causing preoperative PI remain yet to be identified. The endocrine results after surgery are unchanged which rules out that surgery is the cause of PI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinics of Giessen and Marburg GmbH, Campus Giessen, Klinikstrasse 29, 35392, Giessen, Germany. dorothee.wachter@gmx.de
authors.forename: Dorothee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wachter
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gondermann
authors.forename: Matthias F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Oertel
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nestler
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.forename: Dieter-Karsten
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Böker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004702:Endocrine Glands / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007018:Hypopituitarism / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008866:Microsurgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010901:Pituitary Function Tests; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D015173:Supratentorial Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D055815:Young Adult