What does a full pituitary gland mean?

The pituitary gland is located at the base of the brain. It is an extremely important endocrine gland in the human body. It can secrete many kinds of hormones and can directly or indirectly control most functional activities of the human body. During pregnancy and childbirth, the volume of a woman's pituitary gland will slightly increase, but there will be no change at other times. If a full pituitary gland is found in the hospital, it is recommended to do some more hormone tests. This may be a pituitary tumor and needs to be taken seriously.

Clinical symptoms

Clinical symptoms are mainly caused by the compression of surrounding tissues by the growth of the tumor or by abnormal hormone secretion, mostly headaches, visual impairment and endocrine dysfunction. The most common endocrine dysfunctions are the following:

Excessive secretion of growth hormone: if it occurs before puberty, it causes gigantism; if it occurs after puberty, it causes acromegaly;

Excessive secretion of prolactin: in women, it may cause amenorrhea, irregular menstruation or milk leakage; in men, it may cause decreased libido or gynecomastia;

Excessive adrenocorticotropic hormone: causes Cushing's syndrome, with abnormal obesity in the face, neck, shoulders and abdomen;

Excessive secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone: causes overactivity of the thyroid gland, resulting in symptoms such as emotional tension, insomnia, palpitations, and hand tremors.

treat

Pituitary adenoma is mainly treated with surgery, and auxiliary treatments include radiation therapy and hormonal drug therapy. Most surgical methods involve transsphenoidal tumor resection, which involves entering the sphenoid sinus through the nasal cavity and then resecting the tumor in the pituitary fossa. In the case of a few giant adenomas that form large tumors, a craniotomy is necessary. The goal of surgery is to completely remove the tumor to prevent recurrence, remove the compression effect of the tumor, and restore normal endocrine function.