If one adrenal gland has been removed can you live without the remaining gland?

Answer 1

It is very possible to live without adrenal glands, however, the patient that has had them removed will be required to take corticosteroids to make up for what's missing.

I had a BILATERAL ADRENALECTOMY in 2010 due to CUSHING'S DISEASE which is an overproduction of cortisol made by a tumor generally in the pituitary are that mimics a gland and sends constant messages to produce cortisol. Cortisol is a the flight or fight reaction when your body releases adrenaline so that you can deal with a stressful sitiation. These tumors show up only approx. 40% of the time on an MRI. They are the size of a pin head. Mine is still laying on my carotid artery after a failed pituitary surgery in 2008. I had to have both adrenals out to save my life in 2009 as a systemic disease would have ended my life shortly. My Cushings was undiagnosed for fifteen years and I was in the very advanced stages of this disease.

Doctors in rural areas and others as well do not know the signs of Cushings and mistake this disease for a myriad of other ones, as those are all part of this disease. Cushings is common in animals but rare in people, maybe 5-10 in one million. The most common cause of it is overuse of prednisone, a steriod. You could also have a benign tumor on your lungs or another organ. Most of them are in the pituitary area and most tumors are benign. 10-15 million people are estimated to have Cushings.

Some symptoms are weight gain in the abdominal area, developing Diabetes, high

blood pressure, red round "moon" face, fat deposits on collar bones, thinning arms and legs, fractures in legs or feet due to osteoporosis, infections, blood clots, menstrual irregularity or stopping altogether, muscle weakness, excessive hunger, thirst, sleep disorders, excess hair in the wrong places, depression, suicidal thoughts, memory loss depression, panic attacks, purple striae. I had every symptom except for the last one.

I weighed 140 lbs in 1995. I had gained 90 lbs. by 1999. I am now back to 160 almost two years after the adrenal surgery and slowly gaining my muscle strength back. I look like a totally different person. I no longer have high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, a low thyroid, and have lost many other symptoms. I easily c ould have died had I not been a relentless advocate for my own health and discovering on my own what I had. I hope this information helps others. I highly recommend the Mayo Clinic for any undiagnosed symptoms. You will walk away from there with an answer and have the best experience a person could ever have in the health care arena.

Answer 2

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Yes I have no adrenals at all. I depend on hydrocortisone to live. In an adrenal crisis I would have to be injected or inject myself with dextramethesone soon after the symptoms started. I would not live more than two days without hydrocortisone. Your adrenals produce cortisol which you need to live.

Answer 3

yes. If both adrenal glands were removed, you would be lacking all products of the adrenal gland:

• the steroids from the adrenal cortex
  • cortisol - stress responses and other metabolic roles
  • aldosterone - salt balance, which in turn influences blood pressure
• epiinephrine from the adrenal medulla - acute stress responses

The more urgent (ie life threatening) deficit would be the lack of aldosterone. You would be on steroid replacement for the rest of your life. The dosages would have to be increased in times of stress.

Hopefully, only one gland would need to be removed, and the other could increase its output to compensate.

Answer 4

Yes with medical supplementation long term non viable