• Ammar Ahmed, Sindhura Inkollu, Aditya Chauhan, Anders Westanmo, Nacide Ercan-Fang, and Shalamar Sibley.
• Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism Division, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
• Mil Med. 2025 Jan 23.

IntroductionTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant health issue among veterans and poses a substantial risk for pituitary injury. Consensus guidelines recommend that patients who have sustained a TBI should undergo a baseline pituitary hormonal evaluation after the primary brain insult. Patients with abnormal screening test results or with symptoms of hypopituitarism should be referred to endocrinology for a full assessment. Currently, there are no reported data on the screening rates of hypopituitarism in veterans with TBI. This pilot study was conducted to determine the frequency of screening for hypopituitarism in veterans with TBI in a primary care clinic setting.Materials And MethodsWe conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of patients with a diagnosis of TBI who were seen by their primary care physicians at the Minneapolis Veteran Affairs Health Care System over a 1-year period. A random sample was generated using computerized random generator software of patient data, including demographics, TBI-related information, and pituitary hormone levels, which were collected from the panel of primary care providers. We used 2 sets of screening criteria, one by Ghigo et al. published in 2005, and the second by Tan et al. published in 2017, to define hypopituitarism screening adequacy in our cohort of TBI patients. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.ResultsNone of the 50 patients who met the criteria for screening based on the 2005 recommendations were screened for hypopituitarism. Only 2 of the 26 patients who met the criteria for screening based on the more recent 2017 recommendations were screened for hypopituitarism.ConclusionWe report that the screening rate for hypopituitarism in TBI patients is exceedingly low in the primary care setting, even with the less rigorous newer screening recommendations. Measures should be taken to improve screening of hypopituitarism to decrease morbidity and improve the quality of life in patients with a history of TBI.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2025. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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