Growth hormone to improve short bowel syndrome intestinal autonomy: a pediatric randomized open-label clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over), published as a randomized controlled trial.

This study was undertaken to determine if GH could enhance the weaning off of PN in PN-dependent children with SBS.

Why It Was Studied

The ability of growth hormone (GH) to promote the weaning-off of parenteral nutrition (PN) in short bowel syndrome (SBS) is unclear.

No randomized controlled study is available in children.

Who Took Part

The study group was 14 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are children, men only.

A prospective randomized open-label multicenter study was performed in 14 patients (mean age, 9 ± 1.4 years) with SBS (average small bowel length, 33 cm) and long-term PN dependency (8 years) on an unrestricted diet.

The patients were randomized to either a GH group (4 months of GH) or a control (CTR) group (4 months without GH, followed by 4 months with GH).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, open-label and multicenter.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Everyone knew when Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

Running at several centres spread the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study over different clinics and patient groups.

Blood tests and a nutrition assessment of enteral and parenteral intakes were performed.

Groups were compared with the Wilcoxon test.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Energy Intake, Human Growth Hormone, Intestine, Small, Parenteral Nutrition, Short Bowel Syndrome and Weight Loss.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and multicenter study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) in 14 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2011 (JPEN. Journal of parenteral and enteral nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) compound page, all human trials.