Obesity in Children: Definition,Etiology and Approach

Childhood obesity is an important public health issue worldwide. Urbanization, sedentary lifestyle and change in food habits are the chief reasons behind this pandemic. In a small proportion of children, obesity is the result of endocrine, syndromic or monogenic causes. The present paper summarizes the methods, definitions and cut-offs for identification of obesity in children. We have briefly reviewed the various techniques used for estimation of body fat in children and the cut-offs for defining obesity based on body fat percentage, and the reference curves based on body mass index and waist circumference. The etiology of obesity in children, including individual behaviors, macro- and micro-environmental influences, and endocrine causes have been discussed, and an approach to etiological assessment of obese children has been presented. Special emphasis has been laid on clinical pointers that suggest the presence of syndromic, endocrine or monogenic forms of obesity, such as, short stature, dysmorphism, neurocognitive impairment and early age at onset.     

Radiotherapy for craniopharyngioma

Radiotherapy remains the mainstay of multidisciplinary management of patients with incompletely resected and recurrent craniopharyngioma. Advances in imaging and radiotherapy technology offer new alternatives with the principal aim of improving the accuracy of treatment and reducing the volume of normal brain receiving significant radiation doses. We review the available technologies, their technical advantages and disadvantages and the published clinical results. Fractionated high precision conformal radiotherapy with image guidance remains the gold standard; the results of single fraction treatment are disappointing and hypofractionation should be used with caution as long term results are not available. There is insufficient data on the use of protons to assess the comparative efficacy and toxicity. The precision of treatment delivery needs to be coupled with experienced infrastructure and more intensive quality assurance to ensure best treatment outcome and this should be carried out within multidisciplinary teams experienced in the management of craniopharyngioma. The advantages of the combined skills and expertise of the team members may outweigh the largely undefined clinical gain from novel radiotherapy technologies.