J Neurosurg 142:741–755, 2025
The meta-analysis evaluates the impact of pituitary stalk preservation during craniopharyngioma surgery on pituitary function, resection extent, and recurrence. Preservation reduces diabetes insipidus risk but may increase incomplete resection risk in pediatric patients. Results are cautious due to small study sizes and reporting biases.
• Pituitary stalk preservation reduces risk of postoperative diabetes insipidus (DI) and anterior pituitary dysfunction.
• Preservation shows no significant impact on tumor recurrence or extent of resection.
• Pediatric patients face higher risk of incomplete resection with stalk preservation.
• Meta-analysis included 33 studies with 2366 patients.
• Significant heterogeneity observed in DI and recurrence risk across studies.
• Stalk preservation benefits posterior pituitary function long-term, not anterior.
• High risk of bias in individual studies; findings should be interpreted cautiously.
• Subgroup analysis highlights higher recurrence risk in pediatric stalk preservation.
• Egger’s test indicates publication bias in DI analysis.
• Previous meta-analysis by Li et al. lacked age stratification and EEA cases.
• Authors recommend careful consideration of stalk preservation in pediatric cases.
• Lack of age-stratified data limits analysis and may increase bias.
• Study methods followed PRISMA guidelines, with data extracted from eligible studies



You must be logged in to post a comment.