Sudden death in giant pituitary adenomas: two case reports with literature review

Abstract

Pituitary macroadenomas are rare tumors constituting <1% of intracranial tumors. The giant macroadenomas are even rarer and have the potential to cause fatality due mostly to mass effects within the intracranial space. Most cases are nonfunctional and are either null cell adenomas or gonadotroph adenomas in which symptoms may have been ignored by the patient. Sudden deaths from intracranial tumors are uncommon and pituitary adenomas are very rarely associated with unexpected deaths. Here, we present two cases of giant pituitary adenomas both of which were undiagnosed before demise of the patient. The autopsy report showed no other findings except the sellar tumor. Immunohistochemistry of both tumors showed null cell adenoma