Pituitary tumors in adolescent patients.

We report on a series of 48 patients, ages 14 to 20 year, with hypophyseal adenomas. Of these, 46 (96%) had secreting tumors, 3 had Cushing's disease, 9 had somatotrophinomas, and 34 (29 females and 5 males) had prolactinomas. Thirty cases were diagnosed as intrasellar adenomas (62%) while the remaining eighteen (38%) presented extrasellar expansion.

[Prolactin-secreting pituitary gland adenoma. Present-day possibilities of diagnosis and treatment].

Among the 230 pituitary adenomas that we treated, 23 patients aging from 20 to 39 had a prolactin-secretary pituitary adenoma and were all demonstrating an amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrom. It is not always very fast to establish the more and more frequently observed etiology of this clinical state, especially when the existence, or not, of a pituitary adenoma is concerned. A total endocrinological study (determination of serum prolactin and inhibition and stimulation tests) of all hypothalamic-hypophyseal-peripheric axis must be done, as well as precise radiological studies, able of showing small distortions of the sella turcica.