The Use of Recombinant Human Growth Hormone to Protect Against Muscle Weakness in Patients Undergoing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Pilot, Randomized Placebo-Controlled 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.

The Cohen d was calculated to determine the effect size.

Why It Was Studied

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are common knee injuries.

Compared with placebo treatment, a 6-week perioperative treatment course of HGH would protect against muscle atrophy and weakness in patients undergoing ACLR.

Who Took Part

The study group was 19 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults and adults, men only.

A total of 19 male patients (aged 18-35 years) scheduled to undergo ACLR were randomly assigned to the placebo (n = 9) or HGH (n = 10) group.

Knee muscle strength and volume, patient-reported outcome scores, and circulating biomarkers were measured at several time points through 6 months after surgery.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot.

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.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over), giving a reference point.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study would be practical.

Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 2.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, Human Growth Hormone, Knee Joint, Muscle Strength, Muscle Weakness and Pilot Projects.

Author keywords: muscle atrophy, orthobiologics and somatropin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) in 19 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 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2020 (The American journal of sports medicine), a journal based in United States.

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