Adrenal glands

The adrenal glands are positoned slightly above the kidneys and produce a number of important hormones such as adrenalin, mineral corticoids, cortison and sexual hormones. Operations on these organs can be necessary if these hormons are produced in excess or if metastases from tumors of other organs have settled in the adrenals. If excess adrenalin is produced the patient should be treated a few days with alpha and betablockers to avoid stress reactions during the surgery by excess adrenalin release by the tumor. Sometimes these tumors are also silent and do not produce any hormones which are know today.

Adrenal glands surgery

The operation of the adrenal gland can mostly be performed laparoscopically (which means by minimally invasive access) or sometimes open. The latter operation is mostly being performed if a malignat tumor is suspected or the tumor is very big. In both operations the adrenal gland is carefully exposed and freed from its neighboring tissues. At first the draining vein is clamped and then the small arteries are being coagulated or clipped. After dissecting the adrebak gland completely it will be placed in a tissue bag and is brought out of the body via one of the small incisions.

The hospital stay is usually 2-4 days.