Surgical Experience with Cushingʼs Disease

Abstract

IN 1932 HARVEY CUSHING² described a syndrome of truncal obesity, hypertension, amenorrhea, hirsutism, purplish abdominal striae, polyphagia, polydipsia, polycythemia and susceptibility to infections. Four of the 8 patients in his series were found at autopsy to have basophil adenomas of the pituitary and Cushing attributed the syndrome to pituitary basophilism. Anderson et al.¹ in 1938 brought evidence that the common denominator in Cushing's syndrome is hyperactivity of the adrenal cortex, and it has subsequently been clearly established that the fundamental hormonal basis of the syndrome described by Cushing is hypercortisolism.