title: Scalp hair loss after transsphenoidal adenomectomy in patients with acromegaly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Scalp hair loss is often encountered in clinical practice in Japan after successful surgery for acromegaly. However, this intriguing issue has not been addressed in the literature. The aim of this study was to examine scalp hair loss after surgery for acromegaly.
  
  
  METHODS
  Postoperative scalp hair loss was surveyed using a mail-back questionnaire given to 511 patients undergoing primary surgery for acromegaly, 484 of whom constitute the patient pool in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 484 patients, 263 (54%) patients noticed varying degrees of hair loss between 3 and 6 months after surgery [the degree of alopecia was minimal in 50 patients (10%), moderate in 117 patients (24%), and severe in 96 patients (20%)], although postoperative hair loss was noticed only in six (3·6%) of 167 patients with nonfunctioning adenomas. Postoperative hair loss was significantly more common in female patients, cured patients and patients with severe postoperative growth hormone deficiency. Among those 263 patients, full recovery was reported by 85 patients (32%), incomplete recovery by 88 patients (34%), and hardly any recovery by 90 patients (34%). A lack of hair recovery was significantly more common in male patients or in patients with severe hair loss after surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This, the first large-scale, single-centre, clinical study to shed light on the issue of postoperative hair loss after surgery for acromegaly, shows that it is important to prospectively inform patients that varying degrees of hair loss occur in a large number of acromegalic patients, especially after successful surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hypothalamic & Pituitary Surgery, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. syamadays11@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Shozo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fukuhara
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishioka
authors.forename: Mitsuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi-Okada
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takeshita
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
mesh_terms: D000172:Acromegaly / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D000236:Adenoma / Q000601:surgery*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000505:Alopecia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000378:metabolism; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012535:Scalp / Q000473:pathology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; D013006:Growth Hormone