IMPACTS OF SELLA TURCICA ANATOMICAL VARIATIONS ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF PITUITARY NEOPLASMS

Abstract

Pituitary neoplasms present as a health problem of complex origin that affects the sellar region, potentially leading to severe endocrine and neurological damage throughout life. To understand and identify the impacts of sella turcica anatomical variations on the diagnosis of pituitary tumors. The study consists of an integrative literature review, conducted through the screening of studies in the BVS, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases; as inclusion criteria, online texts available in full and free of charge were eligible, in Portuguese and English languages, published between 2016 and 2026, which presented compatibility with the theme and addressed the research question. Among the 24 selected articles, the majority were recent publications, descriptive in nature, and case reports, predominantly published in the journal Clinical Imaging. The findings indicated a direct relationship between the morphological alteration of the sella turcica and the diagnostic conclusion for pituitary tumors, influencing decision-making in 70.8% of the studies. The main indicators were size and volume variables (83.3%), in addition to modifications in structural integrity and sellar floor erosion (79.1%), which function as predictors of tumor invasiveness. The relationship between anatomical variations of the sella turcica and precision in identifying neoplasms is highly present, evidencing, in its vast majority, that the detailed analysis of sellar architecture is an essential pillar for differential diagnosis and the safety of clinical reasoning.