Retinitis pigmentosa in association with acromegaly: a case report

Retinal abnormalities, unrelated to visual pathway compression, in acromega lic patients were originally described by Smail in 1972 (Smail JM. Primary pigmentary degeneration of the retina and acromegaly in a case of pituitary adenoma. Br J Ophthalmol 1972; 56: 25-31). He illustrated a case of primar y pigmentary degeneration of the retina occurring in a patient with a chrom ophobe adenoma of the pituitary gland. To the best of our knowledge this re mains the sole, published case of this association. We report on two male p atients, with an acromegalic appearance, one caused by a pituitary adenoma, the other associated with a Rathke's cleft cyst, presenting to our departm ent of ophthalmology with the clinical picture of pigmentary degeneration o f the retina.