Presentation and management of hypopituitarism in Tripoli-Children Hospital 2000-2010

BACKGROUND: Hypopituitarism refers to complete or partial failure of pituitary hormones secretion that has a wide range of clinical manifestations which require hormone replacement to eliminate or minimize the symptoms and clinical signs of specific hormone deficiencies. We aimed to identify clinical presentation and management of hypopituitarism in pediatric age group. PATIENTS & METHODS: This is a case series study involving 35 patients who were diagnosed to have hypopituitarism due to different causes at Endocrine Clinic of Tripoli-Children Hospital from 2000 to 2010. Data were collected from patient's hard records in the clinic, which include age at presentation, sex, clinical presentation, associated illness, height, weight, extent of pituitary hormone deficiencies, pituitary imaging findings and hormone replacement status. RESULTS: Out of 35 patients 54.3% were males, 45.7% were females with median age at presentation (10±4.5) years. The most common clinical manifestation was short stature (68.6%) followed by hypoglycemia (14.3%) and delayed puberty (8.6%). 11.4% had Craniopharyngioma. MRI showed normal pituitary in 40% of patients, pituitary hypoplasia in 45.7%. Biochemically, growth hormone (GH) deficiency was evident in 82.9%, low TSH in 17.1%, low T4 in 14.3%, low serum cortisol level in 20%, low ACTH in 11.4%, low FSH in 8.6%, and low LH in 5.7%. The result also showed that 5.3% of males had low testosterone level and 18.8% of females had low estrogen level. Hormonal replacement included GH therapy (85.7%), thyroxine (62.9%), cortisol (45.7%) and sex hormone (31.4%). CONCLUSION: Most common clinical presentation of hypopituitarism was short stature. Symptoms of patients with hypopituitarism improved by appropriate hormonal replacement according to their needs.