Background. - Hypopituitarism is a rare but well-known complication of
cranial trauma. In the absence of overt diabetes insipidus, its recog
nition is difficult as the onset of clinical symptoms can be very prog
ressive, up to several years. Case reports. - Three children, aged 8,
9 and 2 years, respectively, were admitted after a cranial trauma. Man
ifestations of diabetes insipidus occurred a few days later in two pat
ients; one of them developed secondary growth hormone deficiency, hypo
thyroidism and hypogonadism, only evidenced at the age of 14 years. Th
e third patient also developed manifestations of hypothalamic and/or p
ituitary hormone deficiencies without diabetes insipidus at the age of
12 years-6 months. MRI showed complete severance of the pituitary sta
lk in two patients and absence of posterior pituitary signal in one of
the two patients with diabetes insipidus. Conclusion. - Growth disord
ers and/or hypogonadism may occur many years after a trauma that may h
ave been forgetten. Search for such an etiology and dynamic MRI are ne
cessary in identifying heterogenous hypophyseal lesions.