Endocrine Abstracts

Parents of children with adrenal insufficiency are taught to administer a hydrocortisone intramuscular (IM) injection in an adrenal crisis. This involves assembling a needle and syringe and drawing up a dose from a vial. It is known that parents report high confidence levels in administration of the injection but at the time of acute illness actual administration is poor. This study set out to see if introducing a planned refresher session for families would impact confidence ...

In January 2023 a Medicines Supply Notification (MSN) was issued by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) regarding a shortage of Norditropin (somatropin) products. The MSN recommended that all patients on Norditropin FlexPro 10mg pens and NordiFlex pens (all strengths) be changed to Omnitrope SurePal. Each patient affected by the shortage needed to be informed of the issue, a new prescription issued, and training provided on the new device. Affected patients were id...

A preterm baby was born at 23 weeks + 2 days gestation. She was managed on our tertiary care neonatal unit and remained ventilated for most of her stay. During her admission, she had recurrent episodes of clinically suspected NEC which were medically managed. Her feeds were discontinued on numerous occasions due to bilious aspirates, vomiting and abdominal distention. Given the patient’s clinical condition, a contrast study of the gastrointestinal tract was done using an enteral iodina...

Adrenal crisis (AC) is a life-threatening episode of adrenal insufficiency (AI) resulting from impairment of glucocorticoid secretion by the adrenal cortex. Approximately 1 in 200 patients die from AC annually.1 AC is often precipitated by intercurrent illness, injury or surgery and can be prevented by increasing oral corticosteroid doses (‘stress dosing’) during illness. Parenteral hydrocortisone may be necessary if oral therapy cannot be absorbed or inef...