Is the sella turcica a depression?

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asked Sep 5, 2023 in Mental Health by Omnitrax (3,780 points)
Is the sella turcica a depression?

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answered Sep 30, 2024 by Abewbew (5,500 points)
The sella turcica is a depression which is a saddle shaped depression in your sphenoid bone that holds your pituitary gland.

The types of sella are flat sella, round sella and oval sella and oval and round sella are more common.

Sella is a bony depression in your sphenoid bone where your pituitary gland is located.

The sellar part of the brain is the pituitary which is located inside a saddle like bony compartment in the base of the skull which protects it.

The compartment is also called the sella turcica although it's also called the sella.

The sella is inside a saddle like bony compartment that is in the base of your skull.

The bony compartment where the sella is, is called the sella turcica although it's sometimes just called sella.

The significance of empty sella on MRI is the "empty" sella turcica can reflect chronically elevated intracranial pressure (ICP).

Empty sella is common in the setting of idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

You can fix empty sella syndrome through surgery and most often hormone medications.

Hormone medications are the most common first line of treatment for fixing empty sella syndrome and surgery is done as a last resort to fix empty sella syndrome.

The doctor that treats empty sella syndrome is an endocrinologist who specializes in treating disorders and conditions of the endocrine system which is the network of hormone producing glands in the body.

Empty sella is suggestive of a tumor or enlarged sella turcica.

Empty sella can occur if you have an enlarged sella turcica which is a bone structure which is where your pituitary gladn sits at the base of your brain.

It's not really known what causes primary empty sella although secondary empty sella can be caused by surgery, radiation therapy or injury.

Primary empty sella syndrome however most often occurs when one of the layers (arachnoid) covering the outside of your brain bulges down into the sella and presses on the pituitary.

And secondary empty sella syndrome most often occurs when the sella is empty because the pituitary gland has been damaged by a tumor or Radiation therapy.

Empty sella syndrome isn't life-threatening and it is treatable with hormone medications and sometimes surgery.

Having an empty sella show up on your brain imaging scan is also not life-threatening.

If you're diagnosed with empty sella syndrome, your care starts with specialists in endocrinology and metabolic diseases who provide expert evaluation and management of hormonal and glandular disorders, including empty sella syndrome.

When the pituitary gland shrinks or becomes flattened, it cannot be seen on an MRI scan.

This makes the area of the pituitary gland look like an "empty sella."

But the sella is not actually empty.

It is often filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

CSF is fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

Empty sella syndrome is a condition in which the pituitary gland shrinks or becomes flattened.

The pituitary is a gland attached to the base of the brain.

The pituitary secretes hormones that regulate the body's balance of many hormones controlling growth, development, and metabolism of the body.

Empty sella syndrome (ESS) is a rare and treatable condition that happens when your pituitary gland becomes flattened.

ESS causes certain symptoms such as frequent headaches and hormone imbalances.

Empty sella syndrome may cause no symptoms at all and seldom causes serious symptoms.

About half of those affected have headaches, and some people have high blood pressure as well.

In rare cases, there is leaking of the cerebrospinal fluid from the nose or problems with vision.

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