Recent Trends in Use of Growth Hormone Therapy

Until the mid 1980's, Growth hormone(GH) therapy was only prescribed to treat children with severe growth hormone deficiency(GHD). Today, however, with abundance of recombinant human GH(rhGH), it is used to treat a wide range of conditions. rhGH can be used to treat short stature from GH deficiency(GHD), insufficiency and other disorders leading to poor growth. Currently it is also used for patients with chronic renal failure(CRF), turner syndrome (TS), prader willi syndrome (PWS), small for gestational age (SGA) without catch up growth by 2 years, Idiopathic short stature (ISS) and some dysmorphic syndromes with short stature. With GH therapy many children can achieve adult height better than the anticipated based on their pretreatment growth pattern.