1993 Volume 2 Issue 3 Pages 238-243
The authors report the case of a pituitary adenoma associated with a Rathke's cleft cyst in a 58-year-old man suffering from a visual disturbance. Tests on hospital admission revealed that his visual acuity was 0.2 on both sides and bitemporal hemianopsia. Further, an endocrinological study disclosed panhypopituitarism. Also, CT scans revealed ring-like enhancement of a low density mass that extended into an enlarged sellar cavity and into the suprasellar region, and MRI also showed a cystic mass in the sellar cavity that extended into the suprasellar region. Thus, a right frontal craniotomy was performed. Brownish colloidal fluid was first aspirated, after which the capsule of the cyst was excised. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient's visual acuity and visual field defects improved. Histologically, the tumor was a pituitary adenoma and its cells were mainly found to be composed of chromophobic cells. The wall of the cyst in the pituitary adenoma was composed of ciliated and non-ciliated columnar epithelium intermingled with goblet cells, indicating a Rathke's cleft cyst. Therefore, based on these findings, it appears that a combined pituitary adenoma and a Rathke's cleft cyst can occasionally coexist, so it should not be assumed that a cyst is a transitional cell tumor.
