Many patients with short stature do not have any other uncomfortable symptoms except for their short height. Due to slow growth and development, they are usually rarely sick and most of them have normal intellectual development. In fact, as long as the height is lower than two standard deviations from the average height of the same region, race, age and sex or lower than the third percentile of the height curve of that population (in layman’s terms, it is the last three people in the queue of a hundred such children according to their size) medically it is called dwarfism. At the same time, growth less than 4~5 cm per year from 3 years old to pre-puberty and less than 5~6 cm per year during puberty is called growth retardation.
Both of these conditions are pathological states, and most of them have been able to identify the cause of the disease. Common causes of dwarfism are: 1. Endocrine dwarfism: such as growth hormone deficiency and low thyroid hormone, which can be diagnosed by growth hormone stimulation test and thyroid hormone detection. Low adult height due to precocious puberty also belongs to this category. Unlike general dwarfism, precocious puberty can lead to higher height than peers during the growth period, but growth stops early and the final height is often shorter. At present, endocrine dwarfism is treated very well.
2.Hereditary short stature: Except for a few who can detect the same disease in the family, most of them lack effective treatment.
3.Nutritional short stature: It is rare at present. General “picky eating” does not cause short stature and is only seen in patients with long-term chronic diseases. These patients do not need to be treated for height increase, as long as the original disease is effectively treated and nutrition is adjusted, they can grow taller.
4, for such patients have a certain role in improving adult height.
5.Chromosomal diseases: such as Turner syndrome, Down’s syndrome, etc., can be diagnosed through chromosomal examination. Depending on the type of disease, the treatment effect is different.
6, genetic metabolic diseases: such as stupid acetonuria, mucopolysaccharidosis. Such patients are currently poorly treated for augmentation.
7, physical puberty delay: the so-called “late growth”, this category of people often have a family history, generally do not need treatment, and eventually can reach normal height. If you suspect this type, you should have your bone age checked regularly and make an annual height prediction. This is because children nowadays are significantly more advanced in their development than previous generations. At present, there are many western developed countries stipulate that the bone age of children in normal growth period should be checked every two years.
8, skeletal system diseases: such as chondrodysplasia, osteogenesis imperfecta, etc. In addition, there are some rare diseases such as: renal rickets, cranio-cerebral injury, tumors, etc..
Nowadays, there are many parents and even some medical professionals who have certain misconceptions about short stature. Either they think it is not curable or not necessary to cure, or they think that children have “early growth and late growth” anyway, so there is no need to hurry. We often encounter people who come to the clinic for treatment only when they find out that their children are short in stature after they have stopped growing, but by then it is too late. Therefore, when you find out that your child is short in stature, you should not just wait, you should do the corresponding examination in time, the earlier the treatment, the better the effect.