Approach to the management of hypothalamic pituitary function in patients with craniopharyngioma after operation / 中华内分泌代谢杂志

ABSTRACT

Craniopharyngiomas develop from remnant epithelial cells of Rathke's pouch in the sella/parasella region with low histological grade. Clinical manifestations are related to visual impairment, increased intracranial pressure, and hypothalamic/pituitary deficiencies, including vision loss, headache, nausea, growth retardation, and hypogonadism. Despite benign epithelial tumors, craniopharyngiomas are adjacent to critical brain structures including hypothalamus, pituitary stalk, chiasma opticum and have recurrence tendency. Treatment-related complications including hypothalamic/pituitary deficiencies, diabetes insipidus, and hypothalamic obesity are major risk factors for reduced quality of survival and throw out a great challenge to the surgical treatment and the postoperative management. Clinical features of one case craniopharyngiomas with manifestation of severe hypopituitarism are described with the aim of exploring effective therapies.