Hypopituitarism in patients with vasculotoxic snake bite envenomation related acute kidney injury: a prospective study on the prevalence and outcomes of this complication

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in patients with vasculotoxic snake bite (SB) envenomation but hypopituitarism (HP) is an uncommonly reported complication. We conducted a prospective observational study on survivors of SB–AKI who were evaluated and followed up from September 2010 till September 2012. Pituitary function tests were done if they developed any symptoms of HP. MRI of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis was done in those with documented HP. Response to therapy in the form of improvement in the quality of life (QoL) was evaluated by asking patients to mark on a visual analogue scale marked over 0–100 mm which was reported as percentage improvement. 126 patients were included for this study (30 were lost to follow up and were excluded). 25 cases were clinically suspected to have pituitary dysfunction and underwent evaluation with 9 (9.37 %, n = 96) found to have evidence of HP. One child had partial empty sella on MRI with anterior as well as posterior pituitary abnormality and stunting; imaging was normal in others. Higher number of patients with HP had hypotension (p = 0.005, n = 7), coagulation abnormalities (p = 0.005, n = 9), severe clinical snake bite envenomation (p = 0.024, n = 9) and progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD) (p = 0.001, n = 5) as compared to those who did not. Dialysis dependence at presentation was not significantly different (p = 0.348, n = 9). Only development of CKD on follow up predicted the development of HP. Patients had an improvement in the QoL after treatment with mean score on the visual analogue scale of 66.67 ± 14.14 %. HP is not very uncommon in patients with severe vasculotoxic SB–AKI. Threshold of clinical suspicion and evaluation should be low as it causes significant morbidity.