Endocrine Surgery Services

Disorders affecting the endocrine glands are often treated with surgery, allowing doctors to remove excess or diseased tissue. At UC Irvine Medical Center, our board-certified surgeons provide a full range of standard and advanced procedures.

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Common endocrine surgeries:

• Thyroid cancer surgery. Several kinds of cancer can affect the thyroid gland, which must then be removed, either partially or completely. The most common cancer affecting the thyroid is highly curable by surgery and radiation therapy.
• Laparoscopic adrenalectomy.Benign (nonmalignant) tumors can grow inside the adrenal glands, requiring surgical removal. But rather than operating through a large incision, our surgeons can perform a minimally invasive laparoscopic procedure, resulting in less trauma to the patient and a faster recovery. First, a thin, lighted tube is inserted into a small incision. Then, tiny surgical instruments are used to remove one or both adrenal glands. Adrenal surgery may also be needed in situations such as Cushing’s syndrome, a problem caused when the adrenal glands are overstimulated by hormones released by a pituitary tumor.
• Parathyroidectomy.Benign growths within the parathyroid glands can cause serious medical problems. These glands are extremely small, and because of their location beneath the thyroid, they can be challenging to remove. However, our surgeons use a combination of sophisticated imaging techniques and minimally invasive surgery to detect and remove problematic parathyroid glands.

The endocrine system

The endocrine system is made up of a group of glands that regulate the body’s processes by secreting powerful hormones that control cell function, growth and development, and the body’s metabolic rate, sexual cycles and reproduction.

The endocrine glands include:

• The pituitary. About the size of a pea, the pituitary is located at the base of the brain. It produces hormones and other chemicals that regulate growth, blood pressure, certain aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, breast milk production, male and female sex organ functions, thyroid gland function, metabolism and water balance.
• The thyroid. Located in the neck, the thyroid is one of the larger endocrine glands. It produces hormones including thyroxin, which regulates energy metabolism, and calcitonin, which maintains calcium balance.
• The parathyroids. Normally about the size and shape of a grain of rice, the four parathyroids are located beneath the thyroid. They also control calcium balance.
• The adrenals. The twin adrenal glands sit atop the kidneys, where they produce steroids, sex hormones and substances that help the body react to stress. Two of these, adrenaline and noradrenaline, are part of the body’s “fight-or-flight” response system.
• The pancreas. An elongated organ located under the stomach, the pancreas serves many functions. In addition to secreting digestive enzymes, it also produces hormones such as insulin and glucagon, which control energy production and storage, and somatostatin, which affects growth processes and overall endocrine system function.
• The ovaries. Located in the female pelvis, the ovaries produce egg cells, as well as steroid and peptide hormones involved in a woman’s sexual development and reproduction. Estrogen and progesterone are two of these hormones.
• The testes. These glands are located in the scrotum in males. The testes produce both sperm cells and male sex hormones, including testosterone.

Other glands such as the hypothalamus and pineal gland are sometimes classified as endocrine glands. Certain organs such as the kidneys, stomach and liver also act as part of the endocrine system because they also secrete hormones.

Diabetes

As a university medical center, we are staffed and equipped to treat many other endocrine-related problems, benign and malignant. Patients with diabetes, a disease affecting the pancreas, are treated by endocrinologists at the Joslin Diabetes Center at University of California, Irvine. More »

Patients requiring Hepatobiliary/Pancreas surgery are treated by our skilled surgeons David Imagawa, M.D. and Thang Nguyen, M.D. More »