Growth retardation in juvenile chronic arthritis patients treated with steroids

Steroids are widely used for treating chronic connective tissue diseases in both adults and children. Unfortunately steroid treatment may produce many side effects and growth retardation is one of these. In juvenile chronic arthritis patients (JCA) oral steroids are mainly administered in severe systemic or polyarticular onset or in JCA complicated by chronic uveitis which is unresponsive to mydriatic and steroid eye drops. Intraarticular steroid treatment is used in pauciarticular onset JCA. This paper will review the literature on steroid treatment and growth rate, and report 35 cases of children with JCA treated with steroids.