Short Stature in Child

Short stature is characterized as a tallness that is 2 standard deviations (SD) or more below the mean tallness for people of a similar sex and chronologic age in a given populace. The most widely recognized reasons for short stature beyond the first year or two of life is familial (genetic) short stature and constitutional short stature which are normal nonpathologic variants of growth. A pediatric patient with short stature and no clinically apparent reason for the most part expects referral to an endocrine authority to recognize the reason. The objective of the assessment of a kid with short stature is to recognize the subset of children with pathologic causes, such as Turner syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease or other underlying systemic disease, or hormonal abnormality.

               Short stature can be due to different etiologies and the cause may be a primary or secondary growth disorder, or idiopathic. Patients with idiopathic short stature (ISS) have no detectable reason; the condition is exceptionally heterogeneous and might be either familial or non-familial. In all cases, an early diagnosis is important and, tallness screening programs must be adequately touchy and explicit to guarantee opportune location and treatment. There are no indicators to recommend that pathological causes of growth failure have different prevalence in different countries, except for growth failure caused by malnutrition, which is clearly reliant on financial conditions.

Diagnosis and Treatment:

So as to enhance referral, coordination between primary and secondary healthcare providers should be promoted for monitoring of growth of children. Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) organization has not been proven to remarkably improve final adult height in kids with typical variation short stature. A double-blinded, randomized study from the National Institutes of Health proposes GH has a small effect on adult height in children with normal short stature if they are treated with GH injections for many years. Evaluation of GH deficiency in the first 1–2 years of life is difficult but Genetic testing may also be carried out if short stature is detected early in life. The diagnosis and, necessary treatment with GH should be initiated as early as possible.