Occurrence of GH deficiency in adult patients who underwent neurosurgery in the hypothalamus-pituitary area for non-functioning tumour masses

Hypothalamus-pituitary tumours and their treatments (neurosurgery and/or radiotherapy) are major causes of acquired hypopituitarism. Scientific and clinical evidences show the positive effect of GH replacement therapy in severe adult GH deficiency (GHD) pointed toward the need of diagnostic screening of conditions at high risk for GHD. We screened 152 adults (82 70 females; age: 52.3 +/- 1.2 years, age-range: 20-80 years, BMI: 26.4 +/- 0.8 kg/m(2)) in order to disclose the presence of GHD after neurosurgery for hypothalamus-pituitary tumours. The whole group (studied at least 3 months after neurosurgery) included: I I I non-functioning pituitary adenomas and 41 peri-pituitary tumours (24 craniopharyngiomas, 7 meningiomas, 5 cysts, 2 chondrosarcomas, 1 colesteatoma, 1 germinoma and 1 hemangiopeticitoma). In 14 patients who underwent both neurosurgery and radiotherapy due to a tumour remnant, the somatotroph function was evaluated again 6 months after the end of radiotherapy. GHD was assumed to be shown by GH peak <5 mug/L (severe <3 mug/L) after Insulin Tolerance Test (M) or <16.5 mug/L (severe