Hypophysectomy for Diabetic Retinopathy During Pregnancy

Abstract

A clinical account is given of a patient with diabetes for twenty-one years, suffering from proliferative diabetic retinopathy, in whom hypophysectomy was performed in the eighth week of pregnancy. The pregnancy proceeded uneventfully, apart from the development of hydramnios; the patient was delivered at the thirty-seventh week by cesarean section. Regression of the retinopathy was noted to commence during the pregnancy and has continued since delivery. Insulin requirements increased by 30 per cent during pregnancy. The baby showed none of the features commonly seen in the infants of diabetic mothers.