[Stress fractures]

In spite of the fact that the first description of stress fracture appeared 130 years ago, its origins still remain unknown. There are numerous potential factors causing fractures in some circumstances. It is sure that this is the result of disharmony of overstrain (bending force or compression force) of groups of muscles on the one hand and skeletal carrying capacity, i. e. one skeletal segment on the other hand. In differential diagnosis, particular attention is to be paid to some localizations, firstly to tibia and femur, since sometimes they are similar to osteomyelitis, osteoid-osteoma or osteogenic sarcoma. It may be supposed that the number of cases constantly grows, corresponding to higher number of participants of various sports and of different age, to be determined by the application of new diagnostic methods, revealing the development of the process far earlier than x-ray (scintiphotography, thermography, ultrasonography and CT). The majority of cases are successfully treated and cured by conservative methods, frequently only by resting, while only rarely there are cases with shift of segments and indicated surgical treatment. A lot of cases are asymptomatic. In the period from 1981 to 1986, we clinically registered 113 cases of stress fractures with soldiers, 105 of them of metatarsus bones, 4 of tibia, 3 of fibular malleolus and 1 of cuboid bone.