Abstract:
Objective To analyze the remission rate of patients with recurrent Cushing's disease (CD) and its related factors.
Methods Clinical data of 22 patients with recurrent CD who underwent a second transsphenoidal surgery from Jan. 2003 to Dec. 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were followed up for over 6 months. Biochemical indexes, bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (BIPSS) results, and MRI results before the second surgery were analyzed. Postoperative serum cortisol, 24-hour urinary free cortisol (UFC) levels, and postoperative pathology were evaluated. Postoperative remission was defined as postoperative serum cortisol less than 5 μg/L or UFC within the normal range. The correlations between preoperative MRI results, adreno-cortico-tropic-hormone (ACTH) level, UFC level, tumor size, and other factors and remission after the second operation were statistically analyzed.
Results Totally, 16(72.7%) patients achieved remission after the second surgery, with a mean follow-up of 64.5 months. All the 22 patients had obvious imaging evidence before the first operation, among whom 8 cases (36.4%) had no obvious imaging evidence of recurrence before the second operation. Of the 14 patients with MRI showing pituitary adenomas, 10 (71.4%) were in remission after reoperation, and 6 of the 8 patients with negative MRI also benefited from reoperation. The disease control rate after reoperation in patients with microadenoma (75.0%, 15/20) was better than that in patients with macroadenoma (50.0%, 1/2), but there was no statistically significant difference. The levels of ACTH and UFC in the remission patients before the second operation were lower than those in the non-remission group, but the differences were not statistically significant. Patients with pathologic evidence of ACTH-positive adenoma after the second surgery had a higher remission rate (86.7% vs 42.9%, P < 0.05). And older age at the time of recurrence was not an unfavorable factor for the outcome of the surgery.
Conclusions Reoperation is a considerable option for patients with recurrent CD after initial surgery. However, further studies with longer follow-up periods and more cases are needed to confirm the long-term effects of reoperation, and other related factors need to increase the number of cases for further screening.