Small bone islands: unusual clinical symptomatology

Abstract

Bone islands are usually considered benign, stable, nonprogressive lesions, radiographically characterized by an ovoid, round, or oblong homogeneously dense and sclerotic focus in the spongiosa, with a preference for the long bones and the pelvis. Benign solitary bone islands are usually believed to be asymptomatic, with no necessity for treatment. Symptomatic bone islands reported in the literature are characterized by a diameter greater than 2 cm, belonging to the category of giant bone islands. The authors report a rare case starting from a painful symptomatology and involving dense sclerotic bone lesions of less than 2 cm, thus falling into the category of small bone islands. The patient underwent a surgical resection to achieve complete recovery. Normally, small bone islands do not explain the pain in patients who present with symptomatology when they are detected during radiographic studies. Based on this case, the authors believe that even small bone islands can be the cause of symptomatology and justify a surgical procedure if all medical investigations suggest no other possible causes of the pain.