BACKGROUND: Empty sella syndrome (ESS) occurs when the pituitary gland becomes flattened or shrinks, which leads to filling of the sella turcica with cerebrospinal fluid. This causes the appearance of empty sella on imaging. ESS is often diagnosed after the workup of pituitary disorders, or as an incidental finding after brain imaging. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report in which ESS was diagnosed after an incidental finding of bradycardia pre-operatively.

CASE REPORT: We present the case of a 66-year-old man who was admitted electively to undergo a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion at the level of L5-S1. He was found to be bradycardic pre-operatively. Upon further workup, he was found to have a thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level of 0.358 uIU/ML (normal range, 0.465–4.680 uIU/ML) and a free thyroxine (FT4) level of 0.8 ng/dL (normal range, 0.8–2.2ng/dL). He also had a history of hypotestosteronemia. He was diagnosed with central hypothyroidism at the time of admission. Subsequently, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the brain was performed, and partial empty sella syndrome was diagnosed.

CONCLUSIONS: Bradycardia in the setting of empty sella syndrome is a rare condition. It is of utmost importance for clinicians to keep in mind a wide differential that includes other non-cardiac causes for common cardiac symptoms such as bradycardia.

Keywords: Bradycardia, Empty Sella Syndrome, Hypothyroidism, preoperative period