Chronic Regional Enteritis and Growth Retardation

Introduction  The endocrine system often is involved in growth retardation,^1-3 although disease of other major organ systems is much more often responsible. Renal disease may be difficult to detect^4,5; disturbance of other systems (cardiac, pulmonary, hepatic, intestinal, or skeletal) is usually evident when it is so severe as to impede growth.^3,6,7 Careful search for a remediable disorder is essential in the evaluation of every dwarfed patient.Regional enteritis in childhood is commonly an acute or subacute disease, which may be confused with appendicitis.^8-12 Several patients with dwarfism associated with this disease have been reported, but intestinal symptoms were prominent in each instance.^8,12-18 This report concerns 2 children with chronic regional enteritis in whom the primary complaint was that of slow growth and maturation, and whose disease of the digestive system was symptomatically obscure. The patients were first thought to have primary hypopituitarism, since skeletal and sexual maturation were retarded