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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Neurol Surg Rep 2022; 83(01): e8-e12
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1742104
Original Article

Rapidly Progressive Pituitary Apoplexy in a Patient with COVID-19 Disease Treated with Endoscopic Endonasal Surgery

Charit Taneja 
1   Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
,
Pouneh K. Fazeli
1   Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
,
Paul A. Gardner
2   Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
,
Eric W. Wang
3   Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
,
Carl H. Snyderman
3   Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
,
Hussain Mahmud
1   Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

This report describes a case of pituitary apoplexy with rapidly evolving hemorrhage in a 74-year-old female with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. The patient presented with severe headache and mild respiratory symptoms, with laboratories concerning for pituitary hypofunction. Brain imaging demonstrated a sellar mass concerning for a pituitary adenoma with ischemic apoplexy. She subsequently developed visual deficits within 24 hours of presentation, and repeat imaging demonstrated evolving hemorrhage and new mass effect on the optic chiasm. She was successfully managed with urgent endoscopic endonasal surgery despite her COVID-19 positive status by taking special intraoperative precautions to mitigate SARS-CoV2 transmission risk. Only a handful of cases of pituitary apoplexy have been reported in association with COVID-19 disease, and even fewer reports exist of endonasal procedures in such cases. We discuss the potential implication of COVID-19 in the occurrence of pituitary apoplexy, in addition to the safety and success of endonasal surgery in this population.

Keywords

pituitary apoplexy - COVID-19 - endonasal surgery

Availability of Data and Material

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.


Code Availability

Not applicable.




Publication History

Received: 04 February 2021

Accepted: 20 September 2021

Article published online:
10 January 2022

© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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