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Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report

Pituitary infarction (PI) is a rare medical emergency appearing in patients with pituitary adenoma, presenting with sudden onset of severe headache, and often associated with vomiting, nausea, visual deterioration, and decreased consciousness. We describe an 83-year-old woman who presented with blin...

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Autores principales: Dupont, Graham, Lachkar, Stefan, Iwanaga, Joe, Tubbs, R. Shane, Ishak, Basem
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6464289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31016086
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4059
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author Dupont, Graham
Lachkar, Stefan
Iwanaga, Joe
Tubbs, R. Shane
Ishak, Basem
author_facet Dupont, Graham
Lachkar, Stefan
Iwanaga, Joe
Tubbs, R. Shane
Ishak, Basem
author_sort Dupont, Graham
collection PubMed
description Pituitary infarction (PI) is a rare medical emergency appearing in patients with pituitary adenoma, presenting with sudden onset of severe headache, and often associated with vomiting, nausea, visual deterioration, and decreased consciousness. We describe an 83-year-old woman who presented with blindness after a history of severe headache. An urgent computed tomography (CT) scan of the brain had been arranged, and a massive pituitary adenoma with hemorrhage was observed, and admission to the neurosurgical department followed. A multidisciplinary team comprising a neurosurgeon, an ophthalmologist, and an endocrinologist is required to manage such cases. To confirm the diagnosis, an urgent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) must be performed; CT scan can be indicated if MRI is contraindicated or not possible.
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spelling pubmed-64642892019-04-23 Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report Dupont, Graham Lachkar, Stefan Iwanaga, Joe Tubbs, R. Shane Ishak, Basem Cureus Emergency Medicine Pituitary infarction (PI) is a rare medical emergency appearing in patients with pituitary adenoma, presenting with sudden onset of severe headache, and often associated with vomiting, nausea, visual deterioration, and decreased consciousness. We describe an 83-year-old woman who presented with blindness after a history of severe headache. An urgent computed tomography (CT) scan of the brain had been arranged, and a massive pituitary adenoma with hemorrhage was observed, and admission to the neurosurgical department followed. A multidisciplinary team comprising a neurosurgeon, an ophthalmologist, and an endocrinologist is required to manage such cases. To confirm the diagnosis, an urgent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) must be performed; CT scan can be indicated if MRI is contraindicated or not possible. Cureus 2019-02-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6464289/ /pubmed/31016086 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4059 Text en Copyright © 2019, Dupont et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Emergency Medicine
Dupont, Graham
Lachkar, Stefan
Iwanaga, Joe
Tubbs, R. Shane
Ishak, Basem
Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title_full Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title_fullStr Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title_full_unstemmed Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title_short Sudden Headache and Blindness Due to Pituitary (Adenoma) Infarction: A Case Report
title_sort sudden headache and blindness due to pituitary (adenoma) infarction: a case report
topic Emergency Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6464289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31016086
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4059
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