[Etiology of acquired growth hormone deficiency (author's transl)].

Authors report on 18 patients with growth hormone deficiency acquired during infancy or childhood. In 14 patients pituitary dysfunction was due to a tumor close to the sella turcica and in one to a suprasellar arachnoidal cyst. In two children growth hormone deficiency followed brain trauma. In one child measles and in one primary hyperlipoproteinemia (Type I) are supposed to be the cause of growth hormone deficiency. The results of endocrinological investigations show that growth hormone deficiency in these patients is not due to a primary pituitary but rather to a suprapituitary lesion.