Skip to main content

UR Medicine

menu

Treatments & Procedures

At the left are listed different procedures that are commonly done to treat patients with pituitary tumors. Pituitary tumor and other conditions affecting the pituitary and hypothalamus often require multiple different types of therapy. In addition, there are many kinds of medical therapies that can be used to reduce abnormally high hormone levels caused by some tumors, and there are many kinds of medical therapies used to replace hormones that are low, either because of the effects of a tumor, or because of the effects of treatment.

Keep in mind that you may only need one particular treatment, or a combination of treatments. The information provided for each treatment is a general description, and may not necessarily reflect what is best for your particular case. In addition, the ultimate treatment recommended for you depends on your particular case, and is individualized to meet your specific needs. What is recommended can only be determined by the combined efforts of the physicians at the UR Medicine Pituitary Program, after we have had a chance to meet with you and review all the important information about your case.

It is also important to recognize that experience is in important in the treatment of pituitary tumors and other disorders of the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. As published in 2003 in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism (volume 88, pp 4709-4719), the mortality, morbidity, and risk of complications after pituitary surgery were significantly higher in hospitals that only treated fewer that 25 pituitary tumors per year, and were significantly higher for surgeons that treated fewer that 8 pituitary tumors per year, compared to hospitals that treated more than 25 pituitary tumors per year and neurosurgeons who treated more than 8 pituitary tumors per year. At the University of Rochester Medical Center, the UR Medicine Pituitary Program routinely treats over 200 new patients every year, making us one of the most experienced centers for the diagnosis and treatment of pituitary tumors in New York and the surrounding region.