Stable pubic fractures in the elderly. The association with sacro-iliac injuries

A consecutive series of 17 elderly patients with radiological or clinical suspicion of pubic fractures were investigated with bone scintigraphy using 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate. All had an increased isotope uptake over the pubic bone and also over the sacro-iliac region, except in one patient where the sacro-iliac uptake could not be assessed. The isotope uptake was slightly increased in nine patients and markedly so in seven. Computed tomography was performed in three cases. In two who showed a marked increased isotope uptake, fractures adjacent to the sacro-iliac joint could be demonstrated, and in one with only slightly increased uptake, no fracture was found.