acute intrapituitary haemorrhage, usually into an existing tumour, presenting as severe headache and collapse. It is a medical emergency. Due to the sudden expansion in size of the gland with the haemorrhage, it is accompanied by lesions of the cranial nerves running close to the pituitary gland, causing paralysis of the muscles of the orbit and occasionally the face. Anterior pituitary insufficiency usually results, but posterior pituitary function survives. Surprisingly, pituitary function usually recovers.
An endocrine gland somewhat behind the eyes and suspended from the front of the brain. The front section, the anterior pituitary, makes and secretes a number of controlling hormones that affect the rate of oxidation; the preference for fats, sugars, or proteins for fuel; the rate of growth and repair in the bones, connective tissue, muscles, and skin; the ebb and flow of steroid hormones from both the gonads and adrenal cortices. It does this through both negative and positive feedback. The hypothalamus controls these functions, secreting its own hormones into a little portal system that feeds into the pituitary, telling the latter what and how much to do. The hypothalamus itself synthesizes the nerve hormones that are stored in the posterior pituitary, which is responsible for squirting them into the blood when the brain directs it to. These neurohormones act quickly, like adrenalin, to constrict blood vessels, limit diuresis in the kidneys, and trigger the complex responses of sexual excitation, milk letdown in nursing, and muscle stimulus in the uterus (birthing, orgasm, and menstrual contractions), prostate, and nipples.... pituitary
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