Brain injury and hypopituitarism: the historical background.

In the year 2000, the latest review on post-head trauma hypopituitarism (PHTH) collected 367 cases of isolated or multiple deficiency of anterior pituitary hormones subsequent to traumatic brain injury. The first patient had been published in 1918 and the latest 15 were my personal observations reported in the said review. In the previous review on PHTH, which was published in 1986, a total of only 53 cases had been collected. The interest triggered by the latest review, which concluded that PHTH was indeed less rare than commonly believed, was such that a total of 192 cases have been reported from year 2000 through April, 2005.