Clinical features and therapeutic outcomes of patients with acromegaly in Saudi Arabia: a retrospective analysis.

Background: Acromegaly is a rare disease resulting in clinical sequelae with significant morbidity and mortality due to the central tumor mass effect and prolonged growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion.

Objectives: The goal is to describe the epidemiology, clinical features, presence of comorbidities, and treatment outcomes of acromegaly in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: Data was collected through a retrospective review of the charts of all patients diagnosed with acromegaly from nine major hospitals in Saudi Arabia over a period of more than 25 years.

High rate of persistent/recurrent disease among patients with differentiated thyroid cancer in Saudi Arabia: factors affecting nonremission.

Background And Objectives: A fairly high number of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in our center had locally advanced disease at presentation and/or persistent disease after standard treatment. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to find the rate of successful ablation and remission and the factors affecting these outcomes.

Methods: The study included 100 consecutively treated patients (20 males, 80 females; median age 36 years) diagnosed with DTC.

Laparoscopic vs. open adrenalectomy: experience at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh.

Background: The laparoscopic approach for adrenalectomy is now widely accepted and preferred over the conventional open approach. We describe our experience of adreanalectomy and compare the results of open and laparoscopic approach.

Patients And Methods: From March 1999 to March 2002, we performed 23 adrenalectomies.

Preoperative neck ultrasonographic mapping for persistent/recurrent papillary thyroid cancer.

Surgical resection of persistent/recurrent (P/R) papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), when localized to the neck, is generally recommended; however, its impact on the course of the disease is not clear. We introduced a new technique in the form of preoperative neck ultrasonographic mapping (US-M) to improve the outcome of the surgical resection of P/R PTC. A total of 19 patients had undergone regional (central, lateral, or both) neck dissection before introducing the current technique (group 1, or G1), and 26 patients (group 2, or G2) had limited lymph node resection guided by US-M with findings accurately plotted on a standard diagram.