Abstract: 【Abstract】 Objective To evaluate the effect of oral acitretin on the height and bone development of children. Methods Clinical and imaging data were collected from 106 children receiving oral acitretin for at least 1 month in Department of Dermatology, Beijing Children′s Hospital from March 2007 to January 2021, and retrospectively analyzed. The main outcome measures were height and near-adult height. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to investigate relevant factors for short stature in children, and non-inferiority test was used to analyze the proximity of the actual height to target height of children who had reached near-adult height. The secondary outcome measures were bone age and epiphyseal closure. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze differences in the value of bone age minus chronological age between the baseline and last follow-up, and the premature closure of epiphysis was also evaluated. Results Among the 106 children, 62 were males and 44 were females; 84 were diagnosed with pustular psoriasis, 10 with psoriasis vulgaris, 11 with pityriasis rubra pilaris, and 1 with lupus miliaris disseminatus faciei. These children received oral acitretin at doses of ＜1 mg·kg-1·d-1 for 1 - 90 months. Among the 96 children aged under 18 years, 91 （94.8%） were of normal stature, and 5 （5.2%） were short in stature; among the 83 children receiving acitretin monotherapy, 81 （97.6%） were of normal stature, and 2 （2.4%） of short stature. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of short stature caused by acitretin combined with glucocorticoid therapy was 76.57 times higher than that of acitretin monotherapy （OR = 77.57, 95% CI: 2.20 - 2 738.82, P = 0.017）, while the type of disease, gender, age at onset, age at initial treatment with acitretin, course of treatment, and average daily dose of acitretin did not significantly affect the stature of children （P = 0.988, 0.214, 0.087, 0.078, 0.066, 0.350, respectively）. At the last follow-up visit, 13 children who had reached near-adult height were of normal stature, and the non-inferiority test showed that their near-adult height was not inferior to the target height （Satterthwaite = 0.23, P = 0.030）. Bone age was evaluated in 45 children at baseline and last follow-up visit, there was no significant difference in the value of bone age minus chronological age between the baseline and last follow-up （Z = -0.85, P = 0.250）, and no patients experienced premature closure of epiphysis before and after the treatment. Conclusion This study preliminarily revealed that oral acitretin at doses of ＜1 mg·kg-1·d-1 for less than 90 months might not significantly affect the height and bone development of children.

Key words: Acitretin, Child development, Body height, Age determination by skeleton, Epiphyses, Near-adult height