Explanation

Adrenalectomy is what it's called when a doctor takes out one or both of your adrenal glands in an operation.

Why do I need one?

You might need an adrenalectomy if you have a tumour on or in your adrenal gland.

If the tumour is malignant, the doctor may want to do an adrenalectomy to look at the tumour in more detail, and to get rid of it before it spreads to other parts of your body.

If the tumour is benign, it might cause your adrenal glands to make too many hormones. The extra hormones will affect your body, so your doctor might do an adrenalectomy to stop this from happening.

What happens when I have one?

You will usually have to stay in the hospital for between 4 and 6 days before you have your operation. This will give your doctor enough time to make sure that you are as well as you can be, so that you can recover quickly afterwards.

During this time, you may have some blood tests or be asked to take some medicinesations to make sure the operation is as easy as possible.

You won't be allowed to eat or drink anything from 8 hours before the operation right up until you have it.

How is it done?

An anaesthetist will give you a general anaesthetic just before the operation. In the operation, the doctor will make a few small cuts on your tummy. He or she will then put a small telescope (to get a good close up view), and the instruments they need to do the adrenalectomy, inside your tummy, and will take your adrenal glands out. The whole thing only lasts between 1 and 2 hours.

Sometimes, your adrenal glands are too big to come out through small cuts, and the doctor may need to make a larger cut in your tummy.

Will it hurt?

You will have a General anaesthetic before the operation, so you won't feel a thing while it is going on! When you wake up afterwards, you might have some pain in your tummy, but the doctor can give you pain killers to help with this.

Are there any side effects?

Sometimes you may feel a pain in your tummy, especially when you breathe in. To help yourself to feel better, you may start trying not to take deep breaths. Doing this can actually make stuff like mucous build up in your lungs, and you may get a chest infection. Don't worry though, you can do some deep breathing exercises to stop this happening - a physiotherapist will show you how to do these.

There is a small chance that after the operation you might get an infection caused by bacteria, but you will be given antibiotics that can easily treat it if you do. You could also get bruises that make the wounds in your tummy swollen, although this is very unusual.

Right after the operation, you might not walk as much as usual, until you are fully recovered and the pain is gone, so you could get a blood clot in your leg. Your doctor may give you special stockings to wear and small injection that thin the blood so that this doesn't happen.

What happens next?

After the operation you will have a drip in your arm and maybe in your neck. This is so that doctors can easily get pain killers and other fluids or medicines you need into your bloodstream quickly and easily. The doctor will take the drip out when you are stronger. You should recover from the operation in a week or two.

If both of your adrenal glands are taken out, you may need to start taking some steroid to do the jobs that your adrenal glands would normally do.

Your doctor will usually want to see you around 6 weeks after the operation to make sure your tummy cuts are healing up well, and to tell you more about why you had to have the adrenalectomy.

What if I have any more questions?

If you have any other questions, you can ask your doctor, or chat to other people about adrenalectomy in the Medikidz forums and virtual world, Mediland.