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Contemporary neurosurgical techniques for pituitary tumor resection

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Abstract

Approximately 5,000 trans-sphenoidal surgeries are performed for resection of pituitary tumors each year in the United States. The rise in popularity of the trans-spehnoidal approach, though described nearly a century ago, has been facilitated over the last decades by advances in technique and technology. In this review, we discuss the relative strengths of microscopic and endoscopic techniques for pituitary tumor resection. However, despite being the standard of care for patients with most pituitary tumors, cure rates for many subtypes of pituitary lesions, such as secretory macroadenomas or tumors with significant cavernous sinus invasion, remain unsatisfactory. We also describe two more recent advances in neurosurgical technique which may offer promise of increased rates of surgical cure: pseudocapsular resection and cavernous sinus approaches.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Lee has received research funding from Karl Storz and has stock options from VisionSense. The other authors have no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania, Washington Square West Building, 235 S. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, USA

    John Y. K. Lee & Leif-Erik Bohman

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, University of California Los Angeles, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Ste B200, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Marvin Bergsneider

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  1. John Y. K. Lee
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Correspondence to John Y. K. Lee.

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Lee, J.Y.K., Bohman, LE. & Bergsneider, M. Contemporary neurosurgical techniques for pituitary tumor resection. J Neurooncol 117, 437–444 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-013-1315-z

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