Anatomy of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland.

Abstract

Some knowledge of the anatomy of the hypothalamus and pituitary and of the neurovascular pathways connecting them is essential for understanding the endocrine and other dysfunctions that result from any lesion involving either the hypothalamus or the pituitary or which damages their connecting pathways. When the pituitary gland is removed or is deprived of stimuli from the hypothalamus'hypopituitarism' results. In hypopituitarism the endocrine organs show the most striking changes, but all the tissues of the body are affected to a greater or lesser extent (Sheehan, 1937; Sheehan and Summers, 1949; Daniel and Prichard, 1975). The anterior lobe (pars distalis) of the pituitary gland develops as an upgrowth of epithelial tissue from the primitive pharynx (Rathke's pouch) which