Pitfalls in adrenal surgery

In the last recent years the widespread use of imaging studies enabled an increasing diagnosis of adrenal incidentalomas, the current incidence ranging from 1% to 5%. Although errors and pitfalls are frequent in the diagnosis and treatment of adrenal diseases, they are surprisingly not reported adequately in the literature (1-5). Analyzing these cases provides a very formative opportunity with a view to defining preventive strategies to minimize errors. Out of 51 laparoscopic adrenalectomies performed for incidentaloma in our institution during a 10-year period, we describe herein 2 cases of diagnostic errors.