Abstract

  Patients with pheochromocytoma are likely to be hypotensive and need vasopressor agents after tumor resection, even if hypotension has been treated with aggressive volume expansion. Our aim was to identify the clinical factors that influence post-resection hypotension and postoperative catecholamine support in patients with pheochromocytoma. The records of 44 patients who had undergone unilateral adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma were surveyed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether catecholamine support was necessary or not postoperatively. Preoperative and intraoperative data, including clinical and biochemical variables, were evaluated. After surgery, 63.6% of the patients continued to require catecholamine support to keep blood pressure normal. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that patients who had had post-resection hypotension were significantly more likely to have a higher concentration of serum adrenaline preoperatively and greater catecholamine index intraoperatively. No variables were significantly correlated with the duration of postoperative catecholamine support.