Humatrope

This information is provided for patients and families dealing with growth hormone deficiency and growth disorders. Humatrope is a man-made form of humangrowth hormone and was first approved in 1987 to treat children who are growing slowly because they do not make enough growth hormone on their own. Since that time, Humatrope has also been approved for the treatment of several additional growth disorders (idiopathic short stature, Turner syndrome, small for gestational age, SHOX deficiency) and for growth hormone deficiency in adults.
Indications for Humatrope
Humatrope is used to treat children who are short or growing slowly because they:
Do not make enough growth hormone on their own.
Have Turner syndrome.
Have idiopathic short stature, which means they are shorter than 98.8% of other children of the same age and sex, are growing at a rate not likely to allow them to reach normal adult height, and for whom no other cause of short stature can be found.
Have SHOX deficiency.
Were born smaller than normal for the number of weeks of pregnancy and do not catch up in height by 2 to 4 years of age.
Humatrope is used to treat adults who have growth hormone deficiency that began either in:
Adulthood (as a result of pituitary disease, hypothalamic disease, surgery, radiation therapy, or trauma); or
Childhood. Patients treated for growth hormone deficiency in childhood whose bones have stopped growing should be reevaluated.