Indications and advantages of neuroendoscopy

  Indications for neuroendoscopy: 1, over 90% of pituitary adenomas; 2, other lesions in the saddle area and anterior skull base: meningioma, craniopharyngioma, chordoma, etc.; 3, most obstructive hydrocephalus; 4, intracranial cysts: arachnoid cysts, hyaline septal cysts, intraventricular and paraventricular cysts, etc.; 5, cerebrospinal fluid nasal leakage; 6, optic nerve entrapment syndrome; 7, intracerebroventricular tumors, cholesteatoma.  The advantages of neuroendoscopy: neuroendoscopy is a prominent representative of the concept of “minimally invasive neurosurgery”, which has many advantages such as less surgical trauma, less bleeding, less surgical risk, faster postoperative recovery, shorter hospital stay and lower cost.  Take the single nostril transsphenoidal approach to remove pituitary tumor, which is the most widely used neuroendoscopy, as an example, we will introduce the advantages of neuroendoscopy. The latter has a flexible and broader surgical field of view. Therefore, this technique reduces the trauma of previous surgical approaches, expands the exposure of the lesion, increases the chance of visually removing the lesion, and makes tumor removal safer. Especially for the three-dimensional neuroendoscope, it is equivalent to a microscope mounted on the inner lens, which makes the operator feel closer to the reality during surgery and brings greater convenience to the identification of anatomical structures in the field of view and the removal of tumor tissues. For the patient, the nasal cavity does not need to be filled after endoscopy, which is more comfortable, faster recovery, shorter postoperative hospital stay, and fewer complications.