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Vanishing pituitary mass revealed by timely magnetic resonance imaging: examples of spontaneous resolution of nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma.

Yoshino A, Katayama Y, Watanabe T, Hirota H

Department of Neurological Surgery, Nihon University School of Medicine, Oyaguchi-Kamimachi, Tokyo, Japan. ayoshino@med.nihon-u.ac.jp

Spontaneous necrosis of a pituitary adenoma is not rare but represents a very unlikely way of curing a nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma. We report two cases of nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma, one of them with a family history of pituitary adenoma, in whom spontaneous complete resolution occurred through the necrosis of previously well-delineated adenoma. Sequential magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans provided clear evidence of the event, resulting in an empty sella. In the present cases, the pituitary necrosis was entirely asymptomatic with the exception of an initial atypical headache in one case, and cured the patients as well as a surgical procedure would have done. This exceptional curative process, however, should certainly not be relied on and does not rule out the possibility of recurrence.

Published 2 June 2005 in Acta Neurochir (Wien), 147(3): 253-7; discussion 257.
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