Pituitary Abscess: Two Case Reports and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Pituitary abscesses are infrequent entities, often forgotten and hence rarely included in the differential diagnosis of sellar lesions. However, given that they share the clinical manifestations of other more common pathologies in this region, the treatment of pituitary abscesses is usually performed correctly without demonstrating a relevant delay in therapeutic decisions when surgical options are considered as the alternative of choice. Two patients with intrasellar expansive processes and endocrinological alterations who were diagnosed intraoperatively as having pituitary abscesses are presented. In both cases, transsphenoidal surgery was performed; adjuvant antibiotic treatment was established for just one of them. Both patients are currently without symptoms due to mass-effect; one of the patients continues exhibiting residual endocrinological alteration and no signs of relapse in imaging studies.