A Rare Case of Pituitary Abscess in a Young Nigerian Woman

Ezeani Iu,Ogbonna Su

doi:10.5348/101062z01eu2019cr

Abstract

Introduction: Pituitary abscess is a rare condition, which diagnosis is usually made during surgery. An uncommon cause of panhypopituitarism, pituitary abscess has not been reported in Nigeria before now to the best of our knowledge. The objective of this article is to report this first case of pituitary abscess in a young Nigerian woman.

Highlights

Pituitary abscess is a rare condition, which diagnosis is usually made during surgery
Pituitary abscess is a rare life-threatening disease which is often misdiagnosed as a pituitary tumor [1] based on the mass effect symptoms and features after imaging studies
We report the first case of pituitary abscess in Nigeria in a young woman who had primary pituitary abscess, who presented with meningitis like symptoms, and had successful drainage of the abscess

Summary

Introduction

Pituitary abscess is a rare condition, which diagnosis is usually made during surgery. The objective of this article is to report this first case of pituitary abscess in a young Nigerian woman. Case Report: A 16-year-old female presented with recurrent generalized convulsion, impaired consciousness, fever, and vomiting of few hours duration. Symptoms of pituitary abscess include headache, impaired vision, and manifestations of pituitary hypofunction. In decreasing order of frequency, symptoms [2,3,4] of pituitary abscess include: headache without a certain pattern is the most common at 70– 90%, anterior pituitary dysfunction at 54–85% due to destruction and necrosis of the gland, central diabetes insipidus at 41–70%, visual disorders 27–50%, and moderate fever 14–33%.

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Conclusion