Transcript
If a decision has been made that we’re going to proceed with surgical treatment of a pituitary adenoma, fundamentally there’s two corridors that you can access the pituitary from. One is essentially from below. So you’re coming either a incision on the inside the mouth above the teeth. That’s one corridor of access through the nose. But fundamentally they all get to a area of the pituitary, or an area that sits below the pituitary called the sphenoid Sinus, which is this air filled sort of cavity. And the pituitary sort of you can see hangs into this air sinus. So however you get to that air sinus, there’s variety of techniques. Some people make a decision in the nose, some people, like I said, make an incision and in the mouth, some people do it endoscopically, which means through a little scope or a little tube. However you get there, you’ll find yourself in this sphenoid sinus and you’ll find the pituitary gland, and therefore the pituitary tumor that’s housed there also sitting there and that’s one access corridor. Another access corridor is what a lot of people think of when they think of neurosurgery and that would be an incision on top of the head going through the skull and then gaining access to the pituitary from on top. So you’ve got a corridor from below and you’ve got a corridor from on top.