title: Isolated sellar tuberculoma presenting with panhypopituitarism: clinical, diagnostic considerations and literature review.
abstract: Tuberculosis, a common cause for chronic intracranial infections can mimic varied intracranial pathologies including tumours. Pituitary tuberculomas are rare lesions and are often diagnosed pre-operatively as pituitary tumours. We report a case of a 31-year-old lady with a sellar-suprasellar lesion who presented with panhypopituitarism. The patient underwent a trans-nasal, trans-sphenoidal surgical decompression of the lesion. Histopathology revealed a tuberculous lesion in the pituitary. The characteristic radiological features of sellar tuberculomas are discussed along with a review of literature. Atypical sellar radiology in the presence of a thickened pituitary stalk could point to pathology other than pituitary adenoma, possibly a chronic inflammatory condition like tuberculoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, EPIP Area, Whitefield, Bangalore, 560066, Karnataka, India. sunilvf@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sunil V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Furtado
authors.forename: Prasanna K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Venkatesh
authors.forename: Nandita
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ghosal
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Hegde
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019299:Decompression, Surgical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007018:Hypopituitarism / Q000209:etiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010900:Pituitary Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016862:Tuberculoma, Intracranial / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery