Spontaneous “pneumo-apoplexy” as a presentation of pituitary adenoma

Abstract Cases of spontaneous CSF leak associated with pituitary tumor apoplexy are uncommon in the literature with pneumocephalus or pneumosella being rare, especially spontaneous occurrence of pneumocephalus being extremely rare. We present a case of pituitary macroadenoma apoplexy resulting in spontaneous CSF leak and a large volume of intra-tumoral gas. A 65-year-old female presented with severe headache, profuse rhinorrhea and acute vision loss and was found to have a large sellar and suprasellar lesion with air and hemorrhage with mild peripheral enhancement. The patient underwent trans-sphenoidal tumor resection and repair of skull base for CSF leak with nasoseptal flap placement. Pathology demonstrated a pituitary adenoma exhibiting immunoreactivity for ACTH. To our best knowledge, our case is the first report of features of pituitary tumor apoplexy with hemorrhage and pneumosella, which could be summarized by the term “pneumo-apoplexy”.