Gigantism

Gigantism (from Greek gigas, gigantos "giant") is a pathology consisting of an anomalous body development, characterised by an excessive growth with respect to the medium height of an individual of the same age, species and ancestry; i.e., we cannot compare a child with an adult (age), a donkey with a horse (species), or a Burmese with a Scandinavian (ancestry).

Acromegalic gigantism is that in which are involved acromegalic changes of short and plane bones because of acromegaly.

Eunuchoid gigantism is that in which the body reaches the proportions of a eunuch, and it occurs in individuals whose sexual glands have functional alterations.

Other names somewhat obsolete for this pathology are hypersomy (Greek hyper "over the normal level" and soma, somatos "body"), macrogenesis (Greek makros "great, large, long" and genesis "production, generation") and somatomegaly (Greek soma, somatos "body" and megas, megalos "great"). For those med students, go to http://www.medstudents.com.br/endoc/endoc8.htm