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Chronic endocrine consequences of traumatic brain injury — what is the evidence?

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 14, pages 57–62 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem with potentially debilitating consequences for the individual. Hypopituitarism after TBI has received increasing attention over the past decade; development of the condition as a consequence of TBI was previously hardly mentioned in textbooks on the subject. Hypopituitarism has been reported in more than 25% of patients with TBI and is now thought to be one of the most important causes of treatable morbidity in TBI survivors. However, most clinicians dealing with neuroendocrine diseases and TBI generally do not see such a high incidence of hypopituitarism. This disproportion is not clearly explained, but recent data indicate that diagnostic testing, which is designed for high-risk populations and not for a cohort of patients with, for example, de novo isolated growth hormone deficiency (the predominant finding in TBI), might have overestimated the true risk and disease burden of hypopituitarism. In this Opinion article, we discuss current recommendations for post-traumatic hypopituitarism in light of recent evidence.

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Figure 1: Prevalence of pituitary dysfunction after traumatic brain injury.

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Acknowledgements

The research salary of U.F.-R. is sponsored by an unrestricted research grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

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  1. Department of Medical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Rigshospitalet, National University Hospital, Copenhagen University, Blegdamsvej 9, Copenhagen, DK-2100, Denmark

    Marianne Klose & Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen

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M.K. and U.F.-R. researched data for the article, made substantial contributions to discussion of content, wrote the article and reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen.

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Klose, M., Feldt-Rasmussen, U. Chronic endocrine consequences of traumatic brain injury — what is the evidence?. Nat Rev Endocrinol 14, 57–62 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.103

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