The Current Status of Endoscopy in Transsphenoidal Surgery. An International Survey

Objective A survey-based study was designed to assess opinions related to transsphenoidal endoscopy, to evaluate the current global attitudes of neurosurgeons regarding the use of this procedure, and to solicit basic data from key institutions worldwide, with the obvious advantage that large series of cases become available for analysis. Methods A web-based multi-item questionnaire was distributed to the surgical Departments of 393 neurosurgical centers by means of an invitation email. The questionnaire was composed of two sections: Section 1 focused on the surgical technique for pituitary adenomas (Standard Technique), and Section 2 concentrated on surgery for skull base tumors (Extended Technique). Each section was composed of two parts: Multiple Choice Questions and Free Textual Responses. Results From a total of 393 Neurosurgical Centers, from 23 countries, that received the questionnaire, 87 of them (22%) submitted complete or incomplete responses. The surgical procedure, in 60 cases had been performed by a neurosurgeon (NS), in 53 cases by a Team (NS+ENT) and in 4 cases by an ENT only. The endoscope (2D and 3D) was employed in 85.2% of transsphenoidal procedures versus the microscope in 14,8 of cases. Endonasal route was used for approach in 93.2% versus sublabial route jn 6.8% of cases. Computer Guided Navigation was employed by survey population in 71 cases, Micro-Doppler in 51 cases and CUSA in 43 cases. Several hundreds of extrasellar tumors were operated using Extended Technique. Conclusions Transsphenoidal endoscopy for pituitary and anterior skull base tumors has become established as a routine method of dealing with a variety of lesions. The level of interest in the neurosurgical surgery community is reflected by the geometric expansion of contributions to the literature on endoscopic surgery