What is the Turkish saddle in medicine?

The Turkish saddle is part of the sphenoid bone at the base of the skull, a form that resembles the saddle of Turkish horsemen. The peculiarity of this bone can be called the presence in its base of a pit in which the pituitary gland is located, an organ that plays a big role in the functionality of the whole organism as a whole.

One of the main diseases associated with this bone is a syndrome called the empty Turkish saddle (PTS), which means only a prolapse in the bone cavity of the suprasellar cistern.

Causes and symptoms of onset of PTS

The causes of this disease have not yet been fully elucidated. While it can be said that this disease can be secondary, for example, after surgical or radiation treatment of the patient or due to tumor development, and primary, if this treatment before detection of pathology has not been performed, and no tumors have been detected. Symptoms that precede the emergence of secondary PTS can not be considered objective, due to their association with the treatment, therefore, it is best to consider only the precedents of the primary PTS for identifying objective causes and symptoms. Most of the factors listed below only contribute to the development of the disease, but can not cause it on its own.

• Increased intracranial pressure
• Female physiological factors (childbirth, pregnancy, menopause)
• Arachnoid cysts
• Increased pressure directly in the ventricles of the brain
• Autoimmune diseases
• Reception of oral contraceptives

Symptoms of the disease

An empty Turkish saddle is most often found in women (80% of cases), over 40 years old. And, approximately 75% of all patients are obese.

The disease itself most often occurs asymptomatically and is detected accidentally during radiography of the skull. One of the symptoms occurring in 70% of cases is a headache, because of which the majority of patients and conduct an X-ray examination. In addition, patients with PTS are often exposed to sudden emotional mood swings and personality disorders.

Endocrine symptoms can also help in diagnosing a disease. These symptoms are characterized by impaired function of the pituitary gland of varying severity. Also, with PTS, there are often problems with vision, which is due to the location of the visual crosshair of nerves in the region of the sphenoid bone.

Diagnosis of the disease

The most effective method of diagnosing this disease today is MRI, which is able to fully visualize the entire inner part of the skull of the skull. MRI makes sections in any plane measuring 1 mm in size.

In addition to MRI, X-ray examination is also possible, which, of course, can not give the most accurate results, but is widespread everywhere.

It is also possible and laboratory diagnosis of this disease, which consists of determining the number of tropic hormones in the pituitary gland in the blood. This method is not particularly accurate, so it can only be used for auxiliary purposes.

Treatment of the disease

In the case when the patient has a primary empty Turkish saddle, treatment is not required, it is enough to observe only the specialist. But, in some cases, there is a need for corrective hormonal therapy. In the secondary syndrome, hormone therapy is almost always mandatory for the patient's normal recovery.

Complications that may require surgical intervention in the treatment of the disease are quite small and they are extremely rare. To this complication is the thinning of the wall of the Turkish saddle so that the cerebrospinal fluid can independently flow out of the patient's nose, as well as the sagging of the optic nerve intersection into the aperture of the saddle, accompanied by the compression of these nerves and impaired vision.