Betty Stebbins of Freeport considers herself lucky. She didn’t feel well all winter long. One night she was watching television and she noticed she couldn’t read the crawler at the bottom of the screen. Her vision became almost instantly blurry. After a battery of tests, including an MRI, she was told she had a brain tumor – in her pituitary gland.

“If the tumor wouldn’t have touched my eye,” Betty said, “they wouldn’t have found it.”

Betty’s luck didn’t run out. Surgery to remove pituitary tumors – called transnasal pituitary tumor removal – has made great advancements in the last ten years. 

• High tech surgical endoscopes, or mini cameras, have allowed tiny instruments to replace drills and knife incisions on the face and skull. 
• The endoscopes are carefully inserted through the nostril to the sphenoid sinus cavity and into the pituitary region called the sella turcica. This enables the surgical team to navigate their way around the pituitary gland, nerves and carotid arteries, which increases accuracy. 
• The technique takes advantage of a new technology that allows computerized mapping of the brain and sinuses. It’s like a car navigation system for surgery.
• Benefits of this minimally-invasive procedure: Pain is minimal, patients have shorter hospital stays, and experience fewer complications from infections.

 “We’re the first in the area to use an entire team of specialists to do the procedure within one organization,” says Fazlur Zahurullah, M.D., an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist with Rockford Health Physicians. “Our team consists of Dr. Vikas Mehta, myself, our endocrinologists (Dr. Alliah Nasser or Dr. John Hovis) and our eye specialists. This is a great benefit to the patient, as their care is coordinated by one, single interrelated team, not several different physician offices.”