Surgery is required once prolactin-type pituitary tumor is diagnosed ?

Surgery is required once prolactin-type pituitary tumor is diagnosed ?  Pituitary tumors are brain tumors. Many people think that craniotomy must be done, and the risk is relatively high.

Surgery vs medication? How to treat prolactin-type pituitary tumors?

Prolactin-type pituitary tumors are one of the many types of pituitary tumors. Unlike other types of pituitary tumors, drug treatment is the first choice after the diagnosis of prolactin-type pituitary tumors. These drugs can reduce prolactin levels in most patients with prolactin-type pituitary tumors, restore menstruation and ovulation, and reduce tumor size.

However, if the prolactin-type pituitary tumor is very large, resulting in obvious compression of the optic nerve, decreased vision, impaired visual field, etc., or the effect of drug treatment is not good, and the drug treatment that has been concluded can only control the level of prolactin and cannot cure the tumor. At this time, we must consider the feasibility of surgical treatment. Long-term use of bromocriptine, some patients have difficulty in taking it because of severe side effects. In this case, surgery can also be selected.

Why do some patients undergo surgery once they are diagnosed?

In principle, when prolactin-type pituitary tumors do not have visual field disorders, we can treat them with drugs at this time, but the time for drug treatment is relatively long, some three, four or five to six years. If the patient’s vision has changed at the time of the first diagnosis, it can be seen from the MRI that the tumor has severely squeezed the optic nerve. At this time, we must give the patient a surgical treatment as soon as possible, instead of recommending medical treatment first. ,Why is this?

This is related to the problem of vision recovery. If the patient’s optic nerve is compressed for a long time and nerve damage has occurred, it is relatively difficult for the patient to restore vision after surgery, and the nerve damage is irreversible! If the pituitary tumor compresses for too long, it causes optic nerve atrophy and causes blindness. This blindness is permanent!

However, if you choose medication, you cannot relieve the oppression on the optic nerve. Because during the three, four years or five or six years of taking the medicine, the tumor is still compressing the optic nerve while it is slowly shrinking. The optic nerve may have caused irreversible damage in the past few years, so it is clinically encountered. Surgery is necessary for prolactin-type pituitary tumors with impaired vision and visual field.

Do I need a craniotomy if I have an operation?

Pituitary tumors are brain tumors. Many people think that craniotomy must be done, and the risk is relatively high. However, with the development of medicine, most pituitary tumors are currently operated under nasal endoscopy. This kind of operation does not require a craniotomy. It uses endoscopic technology to illuminate and excise the site directly from the nostril to the site where we need the operation. The effect is very good.

This kind of surgery is very minimally invasive, which significantly reduces the postoperative complications of patients with pituitary tumors and greatly reduces the pain of patients. It is currently a common surgical procedure for patients with pituitary tumors.

(source:internet, reference only)

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