"Empty" sella: review of 76 cases.

We reviewed 76 cases of the empty sella syndrome. Headache was the chief complaint in 47 cases (62%), and 45 patients (60%) presented with signs and symptoms related to increased intracranial pressure and/or pituitary dysfunction. The CSF pressure was elevated in 35 of the 62 patients who had lumbar puncture, suggesting that increased intracranial pressure may play an important role in the pathogenesis of "empty" sella.