Traumatisk hjärnskada kan ge hypofyssvikt : Förslag till riktlinjer för utvärdering av hypofysfunktionen

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of death and disability among people of working ages. Patients surviving severe TBI-accidents constitute an increasing part of today’s healthcare. In recent years it has been shown that 10-50 procent of the patients with severe traumatic brain injury have lesions in the pituitary-hypothalamic region. It is essential that these patients are evaluated for pituitary deficiency, so that replacement therapy can be initiated, and the rehabilitation process optimized. In this paper a proposal for the evaluation of the pituitary function in TBI-patients is presented, and simultaneously the TBI-concept is introduced to a broader part of the Swedish physicians.