[Rathke's cleft cyst in a middle-aged man with chief complaint of depression : A case report and literature review].

OBJECTIVE

To present a case of Rathke's cleft cyst (RCC) in a middle-aged man complaining of depression and review the relevant literature.

METHODS

A 51-year-old man firstly visited the outpatient clinic of neurology in our hospital due to 4 years of low mood. The patient was found normal in physical and thyroid function laboratory examinations and achieved a total score of 19 in Hamilton Depression Scale, which indicated depression. After failure to respond to antidepressant medication, the patient again came to the clinic of andrology and was found with sexual dysfunction and aspermia. With the serum FSH, LH, PRL, T and fasting blood glucose levels of 0.88 IU/L, 0.25 IU/L, 30.8 nmol/L, <0.24 nmol/L and 3.9 nmol/L respectively, it was considered to be a case of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Pituitary MRI indicated RCC but the adreno-cortico-tropic hormone and growth hormone were normal. All the data obtained led to the final diagnosis of RCC, acquired hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, depression and acquired aspermia and therefore the patient was referred to the department of neurosurgery and underwent navigation- and endoscopy-guided microsurgical resection of the Rathke cleft cyst via the nasopharynx and sella region in 2018.

RESULTS

RCC was pathologically confirmed postoperatively. At 3 months after surgery, the patient was found with a serum T level of 0.72 nmol/L and received the testosterone replacement therapy. After 3 months of treatment, the serum T was increased to 10.3 nmol/L, the patient's symptoms of depression, hyposexuality and sexual dysfunction were significantly improved, and a little semen was observed in the ejaculate.

CONCLUSIONS

RCC is one of causes of hypogonadism in middle-aged men, causing the clinical symptoms mainly by pressing the pituitary gland and inducing gonadotropin deficiency. It is hard for RCC patients with depression and sexual dysfunction to restore gonadotropin to normal even after surgical removal of the cyst and therefore testosterone replacement therapy is necessitated postoperatively.