Pituitary Apoplexy Presenting as Unilateral Oculomotor Palsy in a Patient with Diabetes Mellitus
Özlem Kesim Şahin1, Can Ulutaş1, Ayşe Özlem Balık2, Onur Erdoğan3, Fatih Bayraklı3, Mehmet Gencer41Department of Neurology, University of Health Sciences Turkiye, Haydarpasa Numune Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkiye 2Department of Radiology, University of Health Sciences Turkiye, Haydarpasa Numune Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkiye 3Department of Neurosurgery, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkiye 4Department of Neurology, Memorial Sisli Hospital, Istanbul, Turkiye
Pituitary apoplexy is a clinical syndrome caused by hemorrhage and/or infarction of the pituitary gland. This study presents a case of a 53-year-old man with a seven-day history of severe headache and left-sided oculomotor palsy, who had pupil-sparing oculomotor palsy with a previous history of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes-related microvascular ischemia was initially considered due to the pupil sparing, before imaging studies. However, pituitary hemorrhage was detected adjacent to the ICA cavernous segment in cranial and pituitary MRI, identified as the cause of the oculomotor nerve palsy. This case is significant for highlighting pituitary apoplexy as a rare cause of oculomotor palsy without pupil involvement in patients with diabetes mellitus.