Studying of adrenal incidentalomas in Damascus University Hospitals

Abstract

Background & Aim: An adrenal incidentaloma is a mass lesion greater than 1 cm in diameter serendipitously discovered by radiologic examination ,and their evaluation is important because the mass maybe malignant or secreting one or more of adrenal hormones.

This study aim to statistical study for surgical adrenal incidentaloma in Damascus university hospitals , and  studying the relationship between the malignancy, diameter,  and secretion.

METHODS: In a retrospective way from 2011 to 2018, the study  included 103 mass, 66 women (64.1%), between 21-78 years (45.8±). Right sided masses were observed in 50 patients (48.5%) and left sided masses were observed  in 49 patients (47.6%) and bilateral masses in 4 patients (3.9%), the masses were ranged in diameter between 1.6 -20 cm (mean 6.5cm).  All available data were analyzed with SPSS version 23 statistical program.

RESULTS: 87 masses (84.5%) were benign and 16 masses (15.5%) were malignant. 55 masses (53.4%) were non-secretory but 48 masses (46.6%) were secretory. 32 (31.1%) of masses were pheochromocytoma type, and 26 (25.2%) of masses were adenoma .We found a statistically significance correlation between malignancy and non-secretory masses, and between malignancy and diameter ≥ 4 cm, P value were (0.001, 0.002) respectively.

CONCLUSION: after a complete work up, half of incidentaloma were classified as subclinical over secreting adrenal lesions and 15.5% proved to be malignant masses, and the most common lesions were pheochromocytoma, and the probability of  malignancy increases in masses larger than 4 cm.