Treatment of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency: Who, Why and How? A Review (Original Article) (Clinical Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION In 1957, more than 50 years ago, Raben reported the extraction and characterization of the human growth hormone (GH) (1). Several years later, GH deficiency was described in children with delayed or arrested growth and treatment with cadaveric growth hormone was introduced, resulting in resumption of a near normal growth capacity. After the withdrawal of the pituitary-extracted native hormone in 1985, following alarming reports of several cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a degenerative encephalitis related to prion infection) (2), the introduction of recombinant human GH in 1987 allowed to gradually broaden the range of therapeutic indications. From 1989 on, several European endocrine centres described a specific syndrome related to growth hormone deficiency in the adult (AGHD), whether already present since childhood (childhood-onset or CO) or acquired in adulthood (adulthood-onset or AO). They also demonstrated subsequently the potential benefits of GH replacement therapy in these patients (3-5).