Field Vision Cuts Caused by Pituitary Tumor

My husband had pituitary surgery to remove a 2.5 cm tumor (about the size of a golf ball) from his pituitary gland 14 years ago.  He has no pituitary gland (it was removed with the tumor) and takes medication to replicate the function of the pituitary gland.  He's suffered from somewhat static field vision cuts bilaterally since surgery.  The did not improve post-surgery.  Question:  In general, if there were to have been any improvement, would it have occurred within a short period of time post-surgery?  Otherwise, is it still possible that these cuts will decrease and his peripheral vision can improve at some point now or in the future?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

Understand that I am not an expert in this particular area, but I do see people all the time with visual field loss due to strokes and tumors. In general, if there was going to be an improvement in the visual field, I would have expected it withing 3 - 6 months after the excision.  If no improvement by then, chances are that it is permanant.  The tumor you described was very large and I am not surprised that some visual field loss remained since there must have been tremendous pressure on the optic nerve for a long time.  I'm glad, things went well otherwise.

MJK MD

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear lotzaspotz,

It is likely that your husband had damage to the optic nerve due to the tumor and this damage, was irreversible, if it did not improve.  It is unlikely that the damage will improve as neuronal tissue does not regenerate.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California