[Treatment of central precocious puberty with sustained-release triptorelin]

Central precocious puberty is defined as the appearance of morphological and biological changes induced by the early maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal system before eight years of age in girls and ten years of age in boys. This early onset of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone pulse generator activation leads to secretion of gonadal steroids and therefore to the development of secondary sexual characteristics. The aim of medical treatment is to suppress the secretion of sex hormones. A dramatic improvement has been achieved with the development of gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists which induce a reversible suppression of gonadotropin secretion. Since 1986, triptorelin (Decapeptyl) (D-Trp6-LHRH) has been available for this indication as a sustained-release formulation allowing an intramuscular injection of 3.75 mg every 4 weeks. Results published up to now concern 352 children (325 girls and 27 boys). The pituitary-gonadal suppressive effect has been confirmed. The complete suppression of gonadal secretions induced a rapid regression of secondary sexual characteristics as early as the 3rd month of therapy, and decreased the growth rate acceleration which normalizes during the 3rd year of therapy. The progression of bone maturation clearly slowed down at the end of the first year of treatment so the final height prognosis significantly improved. Whatever length of the treatment period, the reversibility of the suppressive effect of triptorelin has been demonstrated. Puberty resumed 3 to 9 months after stopping the treatment. Tolerance of the medication was excellent. The rare side effects were minor and never led to treatment discontinuation: headaches (8% of the cases), hot flushes (12% of the cases). The percentage of drop out was very low.