SUPRASELLAR TUMORS

Objectives: Our aim was to analyze the postoperative visual status in patientswith suprasellar tumors with preexisting preoperative visual deficit after surgical resection.Study Design: Comparative cross section study. Setting: Civil Hospital Karachi. Period:March 2013 to August 2016. Methods: A total of 107 patients with suprasellar tumors withpreoperative visual deficit who were operated. Either via transsphenoidal (43) or transcranial(64) approaches, were included in this case series. Sixty six patients had pituitary adenomas,24 had craniopharyngiomas, 13 had meningiomas, 3 had chordomas and 1 had epidermoidcyst. Twenty five patients had uniocular visual deficit and 82 had binocular. Visual acuity wasrecorded preoperatively, postoperatively at discharge and at four weeks follow-up. Results:Postoperatively 46% of eyes improved, while 34.4% and 19.6% remained same and deterioratedrespectively. Patients underwent transsphenoidal technique got significant 65% improvement,and those who underwent transcranial had 37.5% improvement (p-valve=0.005). Pituitaryadenomas showed the greatest visual improvement of 65% (p-value=0.000), followed bycraniopharyngiomas (33.5%) and meningiomas (7.6%). In total 52 patients (48.6%) showedimprovement in vision and the visual acuity of remaining 55 (51.4%) did not improve. Conclusion:Patients experience significant benefit in vision after decompressive surgery for suprasellartumors, especially those who have pituitary adenoma and who undergo transsphenoidaltechnique.