Comparison of Surgical Modalities for Giant Pituitary Adenoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 1413 Patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Giant pituitary adenomas (GPAs) are a challenging clinical entity, composing 5% to 15% of all pituitary adenomas. While the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal (EET) approach has surpassed the microsurgical transsphenoidal (MT) and transcranial (TC) approaches as the first-line surgical modality in most institutions, a systematic review comparing the 3 approaches has not been undertaken since 2012. Given growing adoption of EET and development of novel operative techniques over the past decade, an updated comparison of GPA surgical modalities is warranted. METHODS: We identified all studies related to the surgical management of GPAs in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science from inception to December 31, 2021. End points assessed included gross total resection (GTR) rates, postoperative visual improvement, mortality, and perioperative complications. RESULTS: After screening of 1701 studies, we identified 45 studies on the surgical management of GPAs for meta-analysis. Thirty-one used the EET approach (n = 1413), 11 studies used the MT approach (n = 601), and 10 used the TC approach (n = 416). The cumulative number of patients treated by EET did not exceed that of patients treated by the TC or MT approaches until 2014 and 2015, respectively. Despite patients undergoing EET having the highest average tumor diameter, pooled rates for GTR were significantly higher for EET (42%) than MT (33%, P < .001) and TC (8%, P < .001) and EET similarly exhibited superior rates of visual improvement (85%) than MT (73%, P < .001) and TC (56%, P < .001). Mortality rates were comparable between EET (0.6%) and MT (1.6%), but EET had significantly lower mortality than TC (2.7%, P < .001). Compared with MT, EET had lower rates of hypopituitarism (8.5% vs 14.9%, P = .012) but higher rates of diabetes insipidus (3.1% vs 0.5%, P = .001). CONCLUSION: In an updated meta-analysis of 1413 patients with GPA, EET resection conferred significantly higher rates of visual improvement and GTR, when compared with the MT and TC approaches.