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Adrenalectomy: indications and options for treatment

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 June 2017

Abstract

The history of adrenal surgery is longstanding. Firstly described in 1889 by Thornton, the open adrenalectomy has been for decades the only surgical approach to adrenal diseases. Nowadays, instead, several approaches to adrenal glands have been described in the literature, such as laparoscopic adrenalectomy, robotic-assisted procedure and single-incision technique. Actually, laparoscopic adrenalectomy is considered as the gold standard treatment for adrenal lesions. In fact, all functional tumors, including pheochromocytoma, are candidates for a laparoscopic approach in the absence of other contraindications. In the adrenal gland surgery, it is important to consider that a multidisciplinary approach which comprises surgeons, anesthesiologists, endocrinologists, and oncologists plays an important role in the management of patients and that the success of the procedure is related also to surgeon experience and hospital volume. This review aims to discuss the indications for adrenalectomy and to describe the different techniques options for the adrenal gland surgery.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. General, Emergency and Minimally Invasive Surgery Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134, Florence, Italy

    Giovanni Alemanno, Carlo Bergamini, Paolo Prosperi & Andrea Valeri

Authors
  1. Giovanni Alemanno
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  2. Carlo Bergamini
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  3. Paolo Prosperi
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  4. Andrea Valeri
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Contributions

All authors contributed equally to this work: Carlo Bergamini, Paolo Prosperi and Andrea Valeri collected data, Giovanni Alemanno, Carlo Bergamini and Paolo Prosperi wrote the manuscript, Giovanni Alemanno, Carlo Bergamini and Andrea Valeri revised all the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giovanni Alemanno.

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The authors certify that there is no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this article and they state that there are no financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated—including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.

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The authors state that no funding has been received for this article.

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This literary review does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: The authors Alemanno G, Bergamini C, Prosperi P, Valeri A were tagged incorrectly in the metadata of the article.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13304-017-0472-6.

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Alemanno, G., Bergamini, C., Prosperi, P. et al. Adrenalectomy: indications and options for treatment. Updates Surg 69, 119–125 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-017-0441-0

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