The functional evaluation of pituitary in patients with a surgical resection of sellar tumours

Introduction: The aim of this study was to analyse the incidences of hypopituitarism before and after surgical resection of sellar tumours and to find the factors related to the incidences. Material and methods: From January 2009 to December 2011, 191 patients in the Department of Neurosurgery in Xiangya Hospital, who underwent the surgical resection of sellar tumours, were included in this retrospective analysis. Pre- and postoperative pituitary function assessments were performed by the detection of hormone levels. Tumour size and location were analysed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: In total 152 (79.6%) patients had anterior pituitary hypofunction preoperatively, and 176 (92.1%) patients had anterior pituitary hypofunction postoperatively. The pre- and postoperative adrenal cortex hypofunction incidences were 83 (43.5%) and 103 (53.9%), respectively. Ninety-three (48.7%) patients had thyroid hypofunction preoperatively, and 101 (52.9%) patients had anterior pituitary hypofunction postoperatively. The pre- and postoperative hypogonadism incidences were 131 (68.6%) and 160 (83.8%), respectively. The postoperative incidences of anterior pituitary hypofunction and hypogonadism in patients with craniopharyngioma or pituitary tumours were both significantly higher than the preoperative incidences. Surgery resection methods and tumour sizes were found to be related to the incidence of postoperative hypogonadism. Conclusions: To sum up, we found that the postoperative incidences of hypopituitarism were higher than the preoperative incidences. Tumour type, surgery resection methods, and tumour sizes were important contributing factors to the incidence of postoperative hypogonadism.