Endocrine Abstracts

Adrenal tumours form a very heterogeneous group by their origin, clinical presentation, size and biological potential.

The aim of our retrospective study was the epidemiological analysis of the patients with adrenal tumours. We analyzed the gender, age, localisation, clinical presentation, and in patients who were treated surgically- the type of the intervention, patohystological and immunohystochemical finding from the 01.01.2000 to 01.01.2008. The linear trend of the frequency of these tumours during this period was calculated.

The results: We treated 149 patients with adrenal tumour, what makes 0.025% of the population gravitating to our Clinical Centre. There were 98 (65.8%) female and 51 (34.2%) male patients, with the mean age 53.47±11.9 years. The greatest percentage were the patients with afunctional tumours (77.8%; 116 patients), out of which 72 (62.1%) were the incidentalomas. Among functionally active tumours the most frequent were the Cushing syndrome 57.6% (12.7% of all tumours), pheochromocytoma 27.3% (6% of all tumours), Conn’s syndrome 15.1% (3.3% of all tumours). Of 125 patients had tumours of one adrenal gland, 71 (56.8%), of the right and 54 (27.1%) of the left adrenal gland, while 23 (15.4%) patients had bilateral tumours. There were 84 patients (56.4%) with tumors less than 3 cm, 48 patients (32.2%) with tumors from 3 to 6 cm, and 17 (11.4%) greater than 6 cm. Of 51 patients (34.2%) were operated on, 31 (60.8%) with classical, and 20 (39.2%) laparoscopic approach. Immunohystochemystry showed 46 (90.2%) benign and 5 (9.8%) malignant tumours. The linear trend showed the increase in the incidence of adrenal tumours, especially in current year.

Conclusion: The results show the adrenal tumours not to be a rare disease in our surroundings and that there is an increase in the incidence during this eight years period. A functional and benign tumours are the most frequent.