Empty sella syndrome

Empty sella syndrome is a condition of the pituitary region at the base of the brain. In it the pituitary gland shrinks or becomes flattened, and the bony hollow that normally holds it, the sella turcica, fills with cerebrospinal fluid instead of the normal pituitary tissue. The sella turcica is the bony hollow in the skull that holds the gland. The condition can come to light as part of the diagnostic workup of pituitary disorders, or it can be an incidental finding when the brain is imaged for another reason, so a person may have it without ever having had a symptom that pointed to it. As a record of what is described rather than medical advice, this entry follows the Wikipedia lead, which defines the condition by this change in the gland and the cavity and by the two ways it is usually discovered.