Recovery of vision following treatment of pituitary tumours; application of a new system of assessment to patients treated by transsphenoidal operation.

The lack of a standard quantitative method of assessing the degree of visual deficit hinders comparison of the results of the different methods available for treating visual failure due to a pituitary tumour. This report describes a simple, semi-quantitative, and precise approach, and illustrates its use in 34 patients treated by transsphenoidal hypophysectomy and radiotherapy. Visual improvement occurred in 85%, and no patient sustained deterioration of vision. Visual loss before operation was scored at a mean of 51.4%, and was reduced to a mean of 27.4% after a minimum of 12 months follow-up. The factor that had the greatest influence on visual recovery was the degree of visual loss at presentation. It is therefore essential to be able to compare this variable before attempting to assess if outcome is different in patients treated by different methods.