Isolated intraosseous gout in hallux sesamoid mimicking a bone tumor in a teenaged patient

Abstract

We are reporting an unusual case of isolated intraosseous tophus in medial hallux sesamoid presenting as tumor-like lesion in a teenage patient without prior history of gouty attack and underlying systemic disorders. The lesion manifested isointensity to surrounding muscles with internal low signal on spin echo (SE) T1-weighted images, and heterogeneous low signal intensity on fast spin echo (FSE) T2-weighted images. Computed tomography (CT) scan disclosed expansion and diffusely increased attenuation of the medial hallux sesamoid with focal cortical erosion and extraosseous extension of high attenuation content. The subsequent resection and pathology revealed intraosseous tophus deposition, which is particularly rare at this site and at this age. Imaging studies revealed some characteristic imaging features which can retrospectively be attributed to gouty tophus. When an expansile osteolytic lesion manifesting low signal intensity on T2-weighted image and internal calcifications on CT scan is encountered, the possibility of intraosseous tophus should be included in the list of differential diagnoses, even in a teenage patient without prior history of gout.