Pituitary Apoplexy Revisited

Patients with pituitary apoplexy typically present with severe headache followed by visual loss and oculomotor nerve pareses, as well as altered level of consciousness and endocrine dysfunction. This potentially devastating clinical course is precipitated by a hemorrhage or infarction into a pre-existing pituitary tumor. The factors which predispose some pituitary adenomas to bleed are not entirely understood, mainly due to the rare occurrence of this syndrome.