Anthony J. Edis

Adrenalectomy: Anterior or posterior approach?

The relative merits of the anterior and posterior approaches to the adrenal gland were assessed in a series of 103 patients with bilateral cortical hyperplasia or unilateral cortical adenoma (less than 25 g). In none of the patients was additional concomitant surgery planned. Sixty-four patients were operated on through the anterior and 39 through the posterior approach. Iatrogenic injury of the spleen necessitated splenectomy in 9 (18 percent) of 49 patients undergoing left adrenalectomy anteriorly. In 10 (26 percent) of 39 patients operated on posteriorly, the pleural cavity was entered. Perioperative blood requirement and postoperative morbidity were lower when the posterior approach was used. The hospital stay was significantly shorter after both unilateral and bilateral adrenalectomy when operation was done through the posterior approach. The results of this study lend strong support to a posterior lumbar approach for adrenalectomy for small benign adrenal cortical lesions.

Pheochromocytoma Associated with Hypercalcemia and Ectopic Secretion of Calcitonin

A 17-year-old woman manifested fever, abdominal pain, headache, and hypertension caused by a solitary, benign pheochromocytoma. She also had hypercalcemia and elevated plasma immunoreactive calcitonin levels. After removal of the pheochromocytoma, calcium and calcitonin levels returned to normal. Studies of peripheral and tumor venous blood showed no excess or ectopic parathyroid hormone secretion, but the tumor contained and secreted calcitonin. Sporadic pheochromocytoma may secrete calcitonin and cause hypercalcemia by non-parathyroid hormone-mediated mechanisms. The potential is clearly present for confusion with multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2 (medullary thyroid carcinoma, pheochromocytoma, and primary hyperparathyroidism).

Primary hyperparathyroidism and nonmedullary thyroid cancer

Of 2,058 patients who had surgically proven primary hyperparathyroidism at the Mayo Clinic from 1965 through 1979, 51 or 2.5 percent had associated nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma. A history of radiation exposure to the head and neck was obtained in 14 of 43 patients questioned. Thyroid disease consisted of grade 1 papillary adenocarcinoma in 48 cases and pure follicular adenocarcinoma in 3 cases. The parathyroid disease included 41 single adenomas and 5 cases of parathyroid hyperplasia; 5 patients had 2 adenomas. At follow-up, none of the patients had evidence of metastatic thyroid carcinoma. Ten patients were receiving calcium or vitamin D supplementation for protracted hypocalcemia presumably due to the increased insult to the parathyroids from combined bilateral thyroidectomy and parathyroidectomy. More consecutive thyroidectomy, along with parathyroid autotransplantation when indicated, will provide definitive treatment of the thyroid cancer and at the same time minimize the risk of postoperative hypoparathyroidism.

A use for the stapler in pancreatic surgery

Abstract A simple technique utilizing a surgical stapler for the division of the uncinate process of the pancreas from its vascular-areolar attachments is described. This method is applicable during radical pancreaticoduodenectomy, 95 percent distal pancreatectomy and total pancreatectomy. Application of this technique in 10 patients expedited resection and provided a secure, hemostatic division of the uncinate process from the surrounding vasculature.

Factitial Epinephrine-Only Secreting Pheochromocytoma

Excerpt Factitial illness, frustrating from both a diagnostic and therapeutic standpoint, is a well-recognized entity. Metabolic malingerers are a major subgroup, and their problems include factiti...

Unusual problems in parathyroid surgery

Although parathyroid surgery is difficult because of the smallness of the glands and the variability in their location and number, a surgeon who is well versed in the embryology, gross anatomy, pathology of the glands, and the fine points of gross identification of normal and abnormal tissue should be able to identify these glands in most instances. In a review of 122 cases during a two year period, pathologic change was found in 96 per cent, even though 11 per cent were secondary cervical explorations and the mediastinum was entered by a sternal split approach in only two cases. Although the abnormal glands were found in varying locations and ten were outside the usual areas of search, all were consistent with failure to descend or excessive descent and with a relationship to anatomic structures having similar embryologic origin. Sophisticated localizing procedures such as arteriography and selective venous sampling for parathormone are rarely necessary.

Diagnosis of pancreatic islet hyperplasia causing hypoglycemia in a patient with portacaval anastomosis

A patient with biopsy-proved biliary cirrhosis and previous gastrojejunostomy and portacaval anastomosis experienced episodes of severe hypoglycemia. She was found to have hyperinsulinemia and hyperglucagonemia. An oral glucose tolerance test showed postgastrectomy hypoglycemia. Results of the intravenous tolbutamide test were diagnostic for insulinoma, but results of the intravenous glucagon test and prolonged fast (96 hours) were not. Failure, on two occasions, to suppress C-peptide normally during insulin-induced hypoglycemia led to a diagnosis of pancreatogenous hyperinsulinemia. The pancreas showed a 10-fold increase in islet volume, with intensely positive staining with anti-insulin and anti-glucagon antiserums in addition to anti-somatostatin and anti-pancreatic polypeptide antiserums. Incidental findings at pancreatic exploration were a mesothelioma, which did not stain with anti-insulin antiserum, and, at autopsy one year later, a hepatoma.

Hyperparathyroidism and Pancreatitis-Reply

In Reply.— We would agree with Dr Clark that anecdotal reports and collective reviews gathered from the medical literature attesting to an association between hyperparathyroidism and pancreatitis cannot be construed as providing sound evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship. Certainly, pancreatitis can develop in the presence of hypercalcemia, but this appears to be a rare phenomenon, and no satisfactory explanation for a possible causal mechanism has yet been proposed. Our principal purpose in publishing this experience was not to tilt at shibboleths but simply to remind physicians that pancreatitis in the presence of hypercalcemia may have another cause.