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Introduction

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Midline Skull Base Surgery

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Abstract

Pituitary surgery is a distinct subspecialty of neurosurgery in which specific knowledge and interest of pituitary pathophysiology go with precise awareness of basic neurosurgical techniques and associated skills. Nowadays the neurosurgeon has more than one option, including the medical, surgical, and radiotherapeutic ones, alone or in various combinations, in order to manage many of the different pituitary syndromes. The best outcomes for pituitary surgery are obtained in centers where the entire range of pituitary specialties is offered in an environment of effective teamwork. The postoperative management with a long-term patient follow-up in pituitary surgery, perhaps more than other areas of neurosurgery, makes the difference between a satisfactory result and a poor result. It is in such a context that pituitary surgery should be approached today, where the neurosurgeon dealing with techniques, indications, and results resembles a member of an orchestra who is playing a refined instrument. The neurosurgeon must have a keen perception, good instincts, steady hands, and the ability to perform a tailor-made operation for the individual patient and not mass.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosciences, Reproductive and Odontostomatological Sciences, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

    Paolo Cappabianca MD & Alessandro Villa MD

  2. Anatomopathology Unit, Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

    Marialaura Del Basso De Caro BS

Authors
  1. Paolo Cappabianca MD
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  2. Marialaura Del Basso De Caro BS
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  3. Alessandro Villa MD
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Correspondence to Paolo Cappabianca MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Div. of Neurosurgery Dept. of Neuroscien, University of Naples “Federico II” , Naples, Italy

    Paolo Cappabianca

  2. Div. of Neurosurgery Dept. of Neuroscien, University of Naples “Federico II” , Naples, Italy

    Luigi Maria Cavallo

  3. Div. of Neurosurgery Dept. of Neuroscien, University of Naples “Federico II” , Naples, Italy

    Oreste de Divitiis

  4. Div. of Neurosurgery Dept. of Neuroscien, University of Messina , Messina, Messina, Italy

    Felice Esposito

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Cappabianca, P., Del Basso De Caro, M., Villa, A. (2016). Introduction. In: Cappabianca, P., Cavallo, L., de Divitiis, O., Esposito, F. (eds) Midline Skull Base Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21533-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21533-4_1

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