Clinical Outcomes of Microscopic versus Endoscopic Surgical Approaches following Transsphenoidal Pituitary Tumor Resection

Introduction: Transsphenoidal surgical resection (TSR) is the most common surgical procedure used in the resection of pituitary tumors. There has been an ongoing debate on the effectiveness of two different transsphenoidal methods: endoscopic and microscopic sublabial approaches. Endoscopic TSR has been studied over the past decade and evidence has shown that in 2010, 43% pituitary surgeons preferred the endoscope over the microscope whereas in 2020, 87% pituitary surgeons preferred the endoscope over the microscope. While this finding is suggestive of a growing preference for endoscopic TSR, differences in clinical outcomes between the two approaches have not yet been studied ([Fig. 1]).