Craniocaudal Extension as an Indication of Surgical Outcome in Transsphenoidal Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas

Abstract

Transsphenoidal approach is considered the treatment of choice for pituitary adenoma removal. Suprasellar extension is regarded a drawback for complete removal of these tumors through this approach. Evaluate the correlation between the preoperative radiologic craniocaudal extension on MRI of pituitary adenomas and the extent of tumor removal. A retrospective study. Tertiary care hospital. 560 patients underwent transsphenoidal removal of pituitary adenomas. The degree of removal of pituitary tumor in the follow-up imaging of the patients was correlated with the preoperative extension in mid-Coronal T1 W Gd. Tumors with suprasellar extension can be classified into: Type I tumors with extension confined to the sellar boundaries, resulted in complete removal in all cases (100%), type II tumors with suprasellar extension reaching the floor of the 3rd ventricle, resulted in complete removal in 70.2% of the cases, type III tumors with suprasellar extension above the 3rd ventricle, had only 13.5% of complete removal. Integration of radiologic findings into a scheme for the preoperative determination of possibility of total removal of the tumor through transsphenoidal approach, can give better correlation to the surgical outcome of pituitary tumors.