Pituitary stalk Pituitary stalk The pituitary stalk (also known as the infundibular stalk, Fenderson's funnel, or simply the infundibulum) is the connection between the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary. The floor of the third ventricle is prolonged downward as a funnel-shaped recess—the infundibular recess—into the infundibulum, where the apex of the pituitary is attached. It passes through the dura mater of the diaphragma sellae as it carries axons from the magnocellular neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamus down to the posterior pituitary where they release their neurohypophysial hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, into the blood. This connection is called the hypothalamo-hypophyseal tract or hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal
Pituitary apoplexy Harvard Medical School. The term "apoplexy" was applied as it referred to both necrosis and bleeding into pituitary tumors. Pituitary apoplexy Pituitary apoplexy or pituitary tumor apoplexy is bleeding into or impaired blood supply of the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. This usually occurs in the presence of a tumor of the pituitary, although in 80% of cases this has not been diagnosed previously. The most common initial symptom is a sudden headache, often associated with a rapidly worsening visual field defect or double vision caused by compression of nerves surrounding the gland. This is followed in