[Treatment with growth hormone: results and new perspectives]

The use of human growth hormone is being extensively reevaluated in children with hypopituitarism, as we enter a new phase with sufficient supply of recombinant hGH. Simultaneously much emphasis has been placed on the methods of measurement of GH secretion in order to define a more appropriate cutoff level defining partial GH deficiency. Among non conventional indications of hGH, Turner syndrome has turned out to be most important with very encouraging short term results. The extension of hGH therapy to other clinical groups, as non endocrine short stature is still under careful investigation in many groups. A long term follow-up is necessary to assess the true benefit of such a treatment and the absence of metabolic and immunological side effects. We should keep a critical attitude toward the very likely extension of the use of hGH considering that many areas, principally in adults, remain to be explored.