Ľudmila Trejbalová
Overproduction of growth hormone by the pituitary gland - acromegaly - impairs all organ systems and metabolism
mainly due to the development of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, accelerated atherosclerosis and some types
of tumours. It significantly increases morbidity and mortality, mainly for cardiovascular diseases. The major goals
of treatment are the removal of the tumour, adjustment of vision impairment due to the pressure of the tumour on the
optical nerves, remission of growth hormone overproduction and preservation of pituitary functions. At present, we
use 3 basic treatment procedures – surgery, drug therapy and radiation. Primarily it is almost always a surgical tumour
removal in case of failure followed by drug therapy, which nowadays involves administration of dopaminergic antagonists,
somatostatin and pegvisomant analogues. At present radiotherapy is also an important treatment modality.