Arterial bleeding during transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma is known complication. This usually happens due to
rupture of intracavernous carotid or delayed hemorrhage due to the carotico-cavernous fistula and/or pseudoaneurysm. There
is also evidence that cavernous carotid aneurysms may occur with pituitary tumors, yet largest series failed to demonstrate
any link between aneurysm formation and pituitary tumors. Usually such an aneurysm rupture results in formation of carotico-cavernous
fistula. However, pituitary apoplexy and even epistaxis have been reported. In this paper we present a patient with recurrent
pituitary adenoma and cavernous carotid artery aneurysm, which caused significant hemorrhage during the surgery. Although
retrospective analysis of MRI disclosed that the patient had the aneurysm before the first surgery, it remained silent until
the second operation. Therefore neurosurgeons should be very susceptive to any signal changes on preoperative MR images, especially
in recurrent cases, where normal anatomical relations are disturbed by fibrotic tissue. Also, we reviewed the vascular complication
of pituitary surgery based on the literature.
Keywords Pituitary adenoma - Cavernous aneurysm - Carotid artery rupture - Vascular complications