Cushing's Syndrome: What an Endocrine Surgeon Needs to Know

Abstract

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is pathological hypercortisolism with significant morbidity and mortality due to its structural and metabolic complications, delays in establishing the diagnosis & etiology due to laborious investigations needed, and complexity of its lifelong management.  Advancement in surgical techniques especially laparoscopy have helped reducing the treatment related morbidities and has become treatment of choice for majority adrenal causes of Cushing’s syndrome except carcinoma where still laparotomy is often needed. Non-surgical options such as medical therapy &/or radiotherapy are second line options when surgery is awaited, surgery is not adequate or not possible to control the disease. Diagnosis and management of such complex cases needs a team work by endocrinologist and endocrine surgeon. Patient education is an essential component for the successful handling of the case. We aimed to simplify the management with recent updates.