PRIMARY NONFUNCTIONING TUMORS OF THE ADRENAL-CORTEX - AN 8-YEAR EXPERIENCE IN TURKEY

Objective: To report our eight year experience of the treatment of pri mary non-functioning adrenal tumours diagnosed incidentally by compute d tomography or ultrasonography. Design: Open study. Setting: Universi ty hospital, Turkey. Subjects: 20 patients with primary non-functionin g adrenal tumours that were diagnosed incidentally during the eight ye ars 1986-93 and who were treated in our department. Interventions: All patients underwent detailed endocrine studies followed by unilateral adrenalectomy. Main outcome measures: Morbidity, mortality, and outcom e. Results: There were 18 women and 2 men, mean age 50 (range 24-67). No patient died and one developed a wound infection. Histopathological examination showed adrenocortical adenoma (n = 17), carcinoma (n = 2, one of which was a 57-year-old woman with a 35 mm tumour), and hyperp lasia (n = 1). Conclusion: Excision of non-functioning adrenal tumours is safe and we recommend it because there are no exclusion criteria f or malignancy, and non-operative treatment has not been clearly define d.