Occam's razor in minimally invasive pituitary surgery: tailoring the endoscopic endonasal uninostril trans-sphenoidal approach to sella turcica

Abstract

Background: Since the introduction of the endoscopic endonasal approaches in the field of skull base surgery during the last two decades, several variants of the sella turcica endoscopic surgery have been described. The aim of this study is to provide a stepwise description of one of these variants in a minimally invasive/maximally efficient perspective.

Method: For the majority of our sella turcica pathologies, we have progressively adopted a uninostril endoscopic approach that is very conservative towards the nasal mucosa with a very limited mucosal incision, resection of the vomer and allowing an almost ad integrum sellar floor reconstruction, without compromising the efficacy and completeness of both surgical oncologic and endocrine targets.

Conclusion: The uninostril trans-sphenoidal endoscopic endonasal approach to sella turcica is tailored to ally maximal efficiency and minimal invasiveness.