Empty sella, growth hormone deficiency and pseudotumour cerebri: effect of initiation, withdrawal and resumption of growth hormone therapy.

UNLABELLED: An 11-year-old boy with normal visus and eye fundus, but with empty sella, growth hormone (GH) deficiency and central diabetes insipidus was found to have intracranial hypertension with papilloedema after 6 months of catch-up growth under recombinant human GH (rhGH) replacement therapy. Withdrawal of rhGH therapy was associated with normalisation of intracranial pressure within 1 week. Three months later, resumption of rhGH therapy at a lower dose was again followed by pronounced growth acceleration, but now without papilloedema.

CONCLUSION

Children with empty sella and GH deficiency may be prone to rhGH-induced pseudotumour cerebri which appears to be rapidly reversible and dose-dependent.