Adrenalectomy for Cushing's syndrome

1. 1. During a twenty-six-year period forty patients with proved Cushing's disease have been treated at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. 2. 2. Thirty-eight patients received some form of surgical therapy. There were no operative deaths. 3. 3. Two patients treated prior to 1948 died without surgery. Since 1948, three patients have died: one from metastatic cortical carcinoma, one from cerbral hemorrhage and one from a brain abscess. 4. 4. In the series there were thirty-one patients with cortical hyperplasia, eight with cortical adenomas and one with cortical carcinoma. 5. 5. Bilateral total adrenalectomy in one stage seems to provide the best results in these patients. 6. 6. The management of iatrogenic Addison's disease has not been a difficult problem.