The records of 53 patients who had undergone transcranial surgery for a non-functioning pituitary adenoma were reviewed. The most common symptom in these patients was visual loss (51 patients). Headache was the presenting symptom in 25 and hypopituitarism in 18. After surgery 17 of the patients were symptom free, 26 were improved, while seven remained unchanged. Three patients died. Other complications occurred in 12 patients but without serious long-term morbidity. Radiation therapy was given to patients in whom subtotal resection of tumour was achieved. None of these patients had tumour recurrence in a mean follow-up period of 76 months, while of the patients in whom tumour extirpation seemed to be complete, 36% had tumour recurrence.