Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) often have impaired growth and short stature. There is evidence that the therapeutic use of growth hormone (GH) is useful and safe in these patients.
To analyze the effects of GH use in patients with JIA.
A systematic review of the literature over the last 18 years in Medline and Embase databases. The criteria were analyzed independently by the researchers. We used the following keywords: "growth hormone", "arthritis, juvenile", "arthritis, rheumatoid", "child" and "adolescent".
Among the 192 identified articles, 20 corresponded to the inclusion criteria. Seventeen longitudinal studies and 3 case reports were found. Most studies analyzed observed increased growth, muscle mass and bone mass using GH. Adverse effects observed were glucose intolerance, diabetes, bone deformities, osteonecrosis, reactivation of the disease and low final height.
The majority of studies reported positive effects after the therapeutic use of GH, but some variability in response to treatment was observed. The combination of growth hormone with other drugs seems to be a good option.