Ferrigno Rosario, Savage Martin O, Cioffi Daniela, Pellino Valeria, Savanelli Maria Cristina, Klain Antonella
UOSD di Auxologia ed Endocrinologia, AORN Santobono-Pausilipon, Via M. Fiore, 4, Napoli, 80016, Italy.
William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary,, London, UK.
Rev Endocr Metab Disord. 2025 Apr;26(2):147-159. doi: 10.1007/s11154-024-09911-y. Epub 2024 Sep 17.
Children born small for gestational age (SGA) are defined as those having birth weight and/or length below -2 SD for gestational age. In approximately 90% of cases, SGA children experience catch-up growth in the first two years of life and a subsequent regular growth rate, reaching normal adult height. However, in the remaining 10% of cases, SGA children fail to have catch-up growth, showing persistent short stature and a constantly impaired growth rate, leading to decreased adult height compared with both general population and their mid-parental height. Therefore, in these children GH treatment may be indicated to improve growth outcome. As it can be started in most countries from the age of 4 years and is usually recommended until the completion of puberty, long-term GH treatment in SGA children (namely, longer than three years) showed a persistent improvement in height and an initial improvement in growth rate in the first year of treatment, followed by a stable, regular growth rate over time. In the present article, we systematically reviewed the currently available reports about efficacy of long-term GH treatment in SGA children, with a particular focus on growth rate over time and adult height.
小于胎龄儿（SGA）是指出生体重和/或身长低于同孕周-2标准差的儿童。在大约90%的病例中，SGA儿童在生命的头两年经历追赶生长，并随后保持正常的生长速度，达到正常成人身高。然而，在其余10%的病例中，SGA儿童未能实现追赶生长，表现为持续身材矮小和生长速度持续受损，导致与普通人群及其父母平均身高相比成人身高降低。因此，对于这些儿童，可能需要使用生长激素（GH）治疗以改善生长结局。由于在大多数国家可以从4岁开始使用，并且通常建议持续到青春期结束，SGA儿童的长期GH治疗（即超过三年）显示身高持续改善，治疗第一年生长速度初步改善，随后随着时间推移生长速度稳定、正常。在本文中，我们系统回顾了目前关于SGA儿童长期GH治疗疗效的现有报告，特别关注随时间变化的生长速度和成人身高。
