Diabetes Insipidus After Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Surgery

Neurosurgery 2020 DOI:10.1093/neuros/nyaa148

Diabetes insipidus (DI) is a recognized transient or permanent complication following transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) for pituitary tumors.

OBJECTIVE: To describe significant experience with the incidence of DI after TSS, identifying predictive characteristics and describing our diagnosis and management of postoperative DI.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed of 700 patients who underwent endoscopic TSS for resection of pituitary adenoma (PA), Rathke cleft cyst (RCC), or craniopharyngioma. Inclusion criteria included at least 1 wk of follow-up for diagnosis of postoperative DI. Permanent DI was defined as DI symptoms and/or need for desmopressinmore than 1 yr postoperatively. All patients with at least 1 yr of follow-up (n=345) were included in analyses of permanent DI. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed to identify predictors of transient or permanent postoperative DI.

RESULTS: The overall rate of any postoperative DI was 14.7% (103/700). Permanent DI developed in 4.6% (16/345). The median follow-up was 10.7mo (range: 0.2-136.6). Compared to patients with PA, patients with RCC (odds ratio [OR] = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2-3.9; P = .009) and craniopharyngioma (OR = 7.0, 95% CI: 2.9-16.9; P ≤ .001) were more likely to develop postoperative DI. Furthermore, patients with RCC (OR = 6.1, 95% CI: 1.8-20.6; P = .004) or craniopharyngioma (OR = 18.8, 95% CI: 4.9-72.6; P ≤ .001) were more likely to develop permanent DI compared to those with PA.

CONCLUSION: Although transient DI is a relatively common complication of endoscopic and microscopic TSS, permanent DI is much less frequent. The underlying pathology is an important predictor of both occurrence and permanency of postoperative DI.

 

 

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