EEA Outcomes
With more than 800 successful adult and pediatric surgeries, the MINC surgical team continues to refine Expanded Endonasal Approach (EEA) or endoscopic transnasal surgery techniques.
EEA has been proven beneficial in certain cases over conventional surgery for both adults and children, offering patients an option in many instances for removing tumors or treating conditions that were once deemed inoperable or that required extensive incisions and manipulation of and disruption to vital tissues.
In collaboration with colleagues at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, MINC surgeons have performed EEA on more than 60 pediatric patients. In a study of the first 25 pediatric patients, ranging in age from 3 to 18, removal of the tumor was achieved without neurological damage. Very large tumors have been removed without incisions and with less brain retraction or neuro tissue manipulation.
Each successful surgery, including EEA procedures, has a profound impact on a patient and their family, as evidenced by
the following.
Patient Success Stories
- A toddler had an abnormal connection of arteries and veins at the base of her skull. By age four, she had lost vision in one eye and had occurrences of life-threatening nose bleeds. By using EEA over several sessions to manage blood loss, most of her vascular malformation was removed and her childhood has become trouble-free.
- A young, pregnant woman was nearly blind from a brain tumor pressing against her optic nerve. Using the “inside out” approach of EEA, surgeons removed the tumor through her nose, avoiding the need to open in head in a lengthier, more traumatic surgery that would have exposed her unborn baby to prolonged anesthesia. The woman regained sight within 24 hours of the three-hour operation and went on to give birth to a healthy boy.
- A patient with strict religious beliefs surrounding surgery had successful EEA surgery to remove multiple nose, sinus, and skull-base tumors without the need of blood transfusion.
EEA is quickly becoming the UPMC standard-of-care for many pituitary and sinus tumors and the treatment of choice for difficult chordomas, chondrosarcomas, craniopharyngiomas, Rathke cleft cysts, and many skull base meningiomas as well as for patients with particular complications. Learn more about EEA's history at UPMC and the conditions that EEA can treat.
To learn more about EEA at MINC, or to request a consultation, go to Appointments & Referrals.