Diagnosis and surgical treatment of microcorticotropinomas

Abstract

Microsurgical selective removal of hypophyseal adenomas is more and more frequently used in the treatment of Icenko-Cushing”s disease of late. This permits complete cure of approximately 90 % of the patients. Ten patients with this disease, induced by corticotropinoma, were observed. The hormonal methods, as well as computer-aided tomography and NMR tomography, were used to diagnose the condition. A high resolving power of these methods for the diagnosis of this disease is noteworthy. The authors describe the method for microadenoma detection during the operation and present the data of hormonal studies after selective adenomectomy. They emphasize that in cases when clinical data are supported by the hormonal and x-ray findings that confirm the presence of a microcorticotropinoma in Icenko-Cushing’s disease transsphenoidal adenomectomy must be the method of choice for the treatment of such patients.