What is pituitary tumor?
Pituitary tumor is a common benign intracranial tumor growing in pituitary endocrine cells, accounting for 7% to 10% of intracranial tumors, with an incidence rate of about 1 per 100,000 people, and preferably occurring in young adults.
lactation, infertility, acromegaly, gigantism, Cushing’s syndrome, and other symptoms.
What are the treatment methods for pituitary tumor?
1.Conservative treatment: Western medicine conservative treatment is only effective in some cases. Such as bromocriptine for PRL adenoma, GH adenoma, ACTH adenoma, growth inhibitor or estrogen for GH adenoma, cycloheximide, mepyridone for ACTH adenoma, various hormone replacement therapy for non-functional adenoma and pituitary hypoplasia, etc.; however, they are all palliative treatments, which can relieve the symptoms to varying degrees, but the efficacy is not certain and more expensive. The tumor will continue to increase in size after stopping the treatment.
2.Radiotherapy: Pituitary tumor is moderately sensitive to radiotherapy, and the efficacy can be shown only after several months, and it takes one year or more to achieve the maximum effect. At present, it is not the first choice of treatment for pituitary tumor, it is an adjuvant treatment. It is mainly used for pituitary adenomas and pituitary carcinomas where surgery is incomplete or may recur. Linear gas pedal (X-knife) and gamma knife (r-knife) are suitable for tumors less than 3 cm. Although radiation therapy for pituitary adenoma has certain efficacy, further research on its dose, efficacy, and damage to pituitary hypoplasia, optic cross-optic nerve, peripheral vascular nerve structures, etc. is pending in clinical practice.
3.Minimally invasive surgery under microscope: At present, craniotomy of pituitary tumor has been gradually reduced due to large trauma and many complications, while microscopic resection of pituitary tumor through single nostril pterygoid sinus has the advantages of minimally invasive and direct vision operation. But at the same time, because the pituitary gland is located in the pterygoid saddle, the location is deeper, and the operation space is limited by the nasal cavity, so it requires higher requirements for the surgical instruments and microscopic techniques of operators.
4.Endoscopic surgery: Endoscopic transnasal butterfly surgery for pituitary tumor is a kind of micro-invasive neurosurgery technique which is less traumatic and easy to operate, overcoming the shortcomings of the tubular view of the microscope and the weaker light as it goes deeper. There is almost no damage to the nasal cavity, better intraoperative visualization, more complete tumor removal, and better protection of the normal pituitary gland; postoperative patients have a light reaction, faster recovery, do not affect eating, shorter hospital stay, more comfortable recovery, and better surgical results. There is no incision, and the patient can be discharged on the 3rd-5th day after resting for 1 to 2 days after surgery and removal of drainage strip.
Surgical results Microsurgery through the nasal butterfly approach for pituitary tumor treatment has the advantages of less trauma, shorter operation time, faster patient recovery and fewer postoperative complications, and is one of the proven methods for treating pituitary tumor patients. At present, our hospital has the leading neuroendoscopic and microscopic equipment in China, and the director of neurosurgery, Mr. Lou Meiqing, has been carrying out pituitary tumor surgery through the nasal butterfly approach for nearly ten years and has completed hundreds of pituitary tumor resections, with a cure rate of over 95%.
Refractory pituitary tumors For giant pituitary tumors and invasive pituitary tumors, we use a combination of transsphenoidal surgery and craniotomy.
Surgery cost and hospitalization time: The surgery time is about 1 hour, and the patient will be awake after surgery and can be discharged in about 7 days. The total cost of surgery is about 20,000 yuan. Invasive pituitary tumors cost $40,000.