INTRODUCTION
Pheochromocytoma (PHEO) is a neuroendocrine tumour with a prevalence ranging from 0.1-0.6% in patients with hypertension (1). Paroxysmal hypertension caused by excessive secretion of catecholamines could endanger patients’ lives; thus, surgical resection is considered the gold standard treatment for PHEO (1-3). In recent years, it was reported that laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) for PHEO is a feasible, safe and superior treatment option (4-6). However, due to the release of catecholamines during operation, surgery for PHEO is still considered as challenging (4,5).
Nowadays, with the increase in life expectancy and advancements in imaging technology, there has been an increase in the diagnosis of PHEO in elderly patients who undergo routine check-ups (7). However, elderly patients are physically more delicate than youngers, and the outcomes of laparoscopic surgery may be considered going to be worse than younger due to hemodynamic instability during operation (8). In this study, we aimed to compare the LA outcomes in elderly and young PHEO patients.