Harada K, Yoshida J, Wakabayashi T, Okabe H, Sugita K
Department of Neurosurgery, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
Acta Neurochir (Wien). 1995;137(1-2):102-5. doi: 10.1007/BF02188791.
We treated a 1-year-old female with a hypothalamic hamartoma and precocious puberty with leuprolide acetate depot, a super long-acting hormone-releasing hormone analogue (Tap-144-SR; [D-Leu6-[des-Gly10-NH2] LH-RH ethylamide acetate). The infant's major symptoms were genital bleeding and gynaecomastia. The LH-RH analogue (30 micrograms/kg) was injected subcutaneously once every 4 weeks. Clinical and laboratory manifestations of precocious puberty showed marked improvement. A follow-up after 16 months of treatment, the size of the tumour decreased significantly and remained unchanged for 2 years of further follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hypothalamic hamartoma case in whom a decrease of tumour size under treatment with LH-RH analogue has been documented. But, because diagnosis of hamartoma is only based on neuroradiological and not on histological examinations, the possibility of a gangliocytoma cannot be excluded with certainty.
