Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Craniopharyngiomas are embryogenic malformations which lead to eating disorders and morbid obesity due to hypothalamic involvement. The experience with laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) in obese craniopharyngioma patients is limited especially in regard to long-term effects and tolerability.Patients and methods: We are reporting on four patients with childhood craniopharyngioma diagnosed at age 2, 13, 12, and 20 years.<p clas...

Hypothalamic obesity has major impact on prognosis and quality of life (QoL) in childhood craniopharyngioma (CP). The pathogenic relevance of initial hypothalamic involvement versus treatment-related hypothalamic lesions is a matter of controversy.One hundred and twenty patients were recruited prospectively during 2001 and 2007 and evaluated after 3 years of follow-up. Body mass index (BMI) and QoL at diagnosis and 36 mo after diagnosis were analyzed bas...

Objective: Relationships of blood circulating melanocortins to childhood obesity are not well established. We evaluated serum α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) in lean children and different study groups of childhood obesity.Methods: We examined serum α-MSH in 52 otherwise healthy children with childhood obesity (Ob, mean age 11 years, 32 girls / 20 boys), 27 normal-weight children of same age, 7 additional obese patients with reduc...

Despite high survival rates (92%) in patients with childhood craniopharyngioma (CP), quality of life (QoL) is frequently impaired due to sequelae such as severe obesity resulting from hypothalamic involvement of CP. Based on the results of the multicenter prospective study KRANIOPHARYNGEOM 2000 radical surgery is no appropriate treatment strategy in patients with hypothalamic involvement. Furthermore, tumour progression/relapses are frequent early events in CP patients. The an...