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¹Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Ankara, Turkey
²Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Ankara, Turkey
³Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Department of Neurology, Ankara, Turkey
⁴Ankara Medicana Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.12495-14.1 Pituitary adenomas account for approximately 10% of intracranial tumors and 5% are locally invasive. Cavernous sinus invasion by pituitary tumors presents mostly with cranial nerve palsies, especially involving the third, fourth and sixth cranial nerves, which is well documented in the literature. However, an isolated complaint of trigeminal neuralgia due to pituitary adenoma is an extremely rare entity with a limited number of reported cases. A 51-year-old female patient presented to our clinic with complaints of pain and numbness on the left side of face for six months, with each event lasting 5-10 seconds. No improvement was obtained with administration of carbamazepine therapy. Magnetic resonance imaging of the sellar region revealed a mass with the left cavernous sinus invasion. The patient underwent surgery via endoscopic transsphenoidal approach and after than radiosurgery with gammaknife. The patient’s complaints resolved totally after gamma-knife radiosurgery. We report herein a case of pituitary adenoma with an isolated complaint of trigeminal neuralgia. Pituitary adenomas may be presented with cavernous sinus invasion and multiple cranial nerve palsies but isolated trigeminal neuralgia due to pituitary adenoma is an extremely rare entity. Keywords : Cavernous sinus, Pituitary adenoma, Trigeminal neuralgia