Delayed radiation necrosis of the brain following radiotherapy for a pituitary adenoma

The authors report a case of a 37-year-old woman who was given a surgical resection, using a transsphenoidal approach, for a pituitary chromophobe adenoma (a prolactinoma) and postoperative radiotherapy with parallel-opposed lateral portals (a total dose of 50.8 Gy/26 fractions/37 days; TDF: 81). Seventeen months after this radiotherapy, however, she experienced vertigo and nausea, and a CT scan revealed decreased attenuation in the white matter of the bilateral temporal lobes, although cerebral angiograms showed no abnormalities. Delayed radiation necrosis of the temporal lobes was diagnosed and these clinical symptoms improved with the administrations of steroids and glyceol. Ten years after this radiation, the patient is alive and shows no neurological abnormalities. (author)