On March 5, 2022, a patient with a giant pituitary adenoma and acute pituitary apoplexy was rushed to PUMCH due to severe headache and blindness in the left eye. Since the patient could not tolerate an ordinary MRI examination, the PUMCH multidisciplinary team adopted intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to accurately determine the tumor location, and then performed minimally invasive pituitary adenoma resection + hematoma evacuation via transsphenoidal approach. An hour and a half later, the lesion was completely removed.

After the operation, the patient woke up and could clearly see his family: “Many thanks to PUMCH and to the neurosurgery team. You saved my life. Thank you for helping me regain sight!”

CT scan of the head revealed a high-density mass in center of the skull base.

The multidisciplinary team performed transsphenoidal pituitary surgery for the patient with the help of intraoperative MRI.

The multidisciplinary experts were making the surgical plan for the patient in the operation room.

Written by and picture courtesy of the Department of Neurosurgery

Translator: Liu Haiyan

Editor: Wang Yu and Wang Yao