L’acromégalie du sujet âgé: quelles particularités?

Somatotroph adenomas are rare in the aging population. Diagnosis of somatotroph adenomas is often long delayed and they are characterized by atypical clinical picture. Their diagnostic criteria are similar to those used for younger patients. Surgery, if possible, is the treatment of choice for acromegaly in the elderly. Somatostatin analogues have shown to be effective in these patients. Prognosis is inversely correlated with patient’s age, duration of disease and last GH level under treatment. Beside evolution of disease, age is a major determinant of mortality. We report three cases of elderly patients with acromegaly aged 75, 70 and 66 years respectively with a literature review.