On the one hand, the etiology of sclerosing osteomyelitis is not fully understood, although it is generally assumed to stem from a bacterial infection (usually with low pathogenic bacteria such as actinomyces); having said that, bacterial cultures are negative in most cases. On the other, chronic sclerosing osteomyelitis may be associated with cortical hypertrophy and hyperplasia, a rough bone surface, as well as narrowing or even occlusion of the medullary cavity by granulation tissue and fibrous tissue. These features were present in the case described by us (1). The course of disease in our patient was slow with only mild systemic symptoms. In accordance with the wishes of the patient and her family, further surgical procedures (such as relieving pressure within the medullary cavity, curettage, or filling with antibiotic-loaded bone cement) were not performed following open biopsy.
Footnotes
Conflict of interest statement
The authors of both contributions state that no conflict of interest exists.
References
- 1.Liu S, Zhou X, Liu Y. Garré disease with club-shaped thickening of the femur. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2021;118 doi: 10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0072. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]