Dwarfism is defined as a physical disorder that is characterized by short stature and inability of a person to achieve a minimum height of 148 cm in his or her adulthood. Dwarfism has several types and various etiologies. The reasons of it might be genetic, metabolic or constitutional. Nowadays there are approximately 100 kinds of dwarfism, however none of these kinds is common because dwarfism occurs only in 0.5 to 1.5 births per 10000. In general there are two main qualifications of dwarfism. The first qualification relates to patients with short stature but proportionate and normal trunk-to-limb ratio. The second qualification refers to those, whose growth is disproportionate, therefore such patients have either short limbs in relation to their trunks or, as opposite, short trunk in relation to their limbs. (Gambling and Douglas 115)
As it has been mentioned above, there are many types of dwarfism known nowadays, and each of these types has its own causes. While some of them are caused by genetic or environmental reasons, others are the result of deficiency of growth hormone. One of the types of dwarfism that relates to the lack of growth hormone is pituitary dwarfism. It is quiet rare short stature that might result from either the reduced production of the growth hormone by the anterior pituitary gland or by the reduced capacity of the tissues to respond to the growth hormone. In case if it was detected that the growth hormone is lacking, it is important to determine the cause. Sometimes the fault might lie with the pituitary gland itself, while in other cases the problem relates to the destruction of hypothalamus or pituitary by radiation, infection of even tumors. There are also some percentage of cases, according to which patients have normal levels of the growth hormone but are still diagnosed with dwarfism. Usually such patients are born with inherited recessive trait, which results in reduced and abnormal growth hormone receptors. (Chi et al. 831)
Works Cited
Chi, Angela, Douglas Damn,Brad Neville, Carl Allen and Jerry Bouquot. Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. St. Louis: Elsevier. 2009. Print
Gambling, David and Joanne Douglas. Obstetric Anesthesia and Uncommon Disorders. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2008. Print.
