Analysis of clinical characteristics of 985 patients with Cushing's syndrome treated with adrenal surgery in a single center / 中华泌尿外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the etiological spectrum, clinical features, and surgical treatment of patients with Cushing's syndrome (CS) who underwent adrenal surgery.Methods:From August 2002 to August 2022, the clinical data of 985 patients with Cushing's syndrome who underwent surgical treatment in the department of urology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. There were 210 males and 775 females. The average age was 43.33±13.49 years old. The age of males was older than that of females (45.53±14.39 vs. 42.68±13.16 years, P=0.016). The principle of preoperative surgical method selection for patients in this group was described as follow. For adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) independent CS, adrenal tumor resection was considered for unilateral solitary lesions and unilateral adrenalectomy was considered for unilateral multiple lesions. For bilateral lesions, the larger tumor was removed first, and the contralateral operation was decided according to the follow-up results. Patients with suspicion of cortical cancer are subjected to R0 resection, and open surgery was performed if the tumor diameter is≥6 cm. The clinical characteristics of CS patients were summarized. The clinical symptom characters, etiology spectrum and the corresponding selection principles of surgical methods were analyzed. Results:Among the 985 cases, ACTH-independent CS accounted for 92.8% (914/985), and ACTH-dependent CS accounted for 7.2% (71/985). According to the postoperative pathological results, ACTH-independent CS was the most common, among which adrenal adenoma was the most common 75.94% (748/985), PBMAH 11.37% (112/985), Cushing's disease 4.26% (42/985), PPNAD 3.25% (32/985), EAS 2.94 (29/985), cortical carcinoma 2.23% (22/985). In terms of clinical manifestations, full moon face, bloody face, buffalo back, central obesity and weight gain were more common. The incidence of the above single symptoms was >30%. In terms of hormone secretion, the cortisol level of ACTH-dependent CS patients was significantly higher than that of ACTH-independent CS ( P<0.001). Cortisol [(16.61±6.78) μg/dl] and 24h-UFC [103.65 (59.83, 175.70) μg/24h] in patients with subclinical cortical adenoma were lower than those in other types of patients ( P<0.001). Among the patients with bilateral adenomas, 4 patients underwent simultaneous resection of bilateral adrenal tumors due to severe CS symptoms, and the remaining 74 patients underwent two-stage simple tumor resection, total adrenalectomy or subtotal adrenalectomy according to the size and number of tumors. Of the 22 patients with cortical carcinoma, 2 patients underwent R0 resection after neoadjuvant therapy with mitotane after being diagnosed by needle biopsy due to local infiltration of the tumor. In patients with EAS and Cushing's disease, 62.07% (18/29) and 23.81% (10/42) were treated with simultaneous bilateral target gland resection due to severe CS symptoms, respectively. In 112 cases of PBMAH and 32 cases of PPNAD, the initial treatment was unilateral adrenalectomy or subtotal adrenalectomy, and the follow-up was continued to decide whether to perform contralateral adrenalectomy or subtotal adrenalectomy. Conclusions:The etiological spectrum of CS patients admitted to the urology department is different from that of the overall CS, and is dominated by adrenal disease, and Cushing's disease is rare. Due to the different etiological spectrum, the patient's symptom spectrum is different, and difficulty in squatting and fracture are rare. The main treatment for unilateral adrenal disease is tumor resection or unilateral adrenalectomy. For ACTH-dependent CS in bilateral lesions, bilateral adrenalectomy is recommended, and hormone supplementation is recommended after surgery. For ACTH-independent CS, unilateral adrenalectomy is recommended first, and individualized treatment plans are formulated based on the results of follow-up.