Pituitary Apoplexy Occurring during Large Volume Liposuction Surgery

A 50-year-old woman developed headache and right-sided ophthalmoplegia upon awakening from general anesthesia after liposuction surgery on her abdomen, hips, and thighs. Neuroimaging showed hemorrhage within a previously undiagnosed pituitary adenoma. The confirmatory surgical specimen contained areas of gross infarction and hemorrhage. The anesthesia record revealed intraoperative reduction of systolic blood pressure to 90 mm Hg for 30 minutes from a baseline of 120 mm Hg. This first reported case of pituitary apoplexy during liposuction surgery probably resulted from intraoperative hypotension attributed to a combination of general anesthesia, the use of subcutaneous lidocaine, sequestration of plasma in injured tissues, and blood loss.