[Aneurysmal bone cysts in children. Study of 28 cases]

Twenty-eight aneurysmal bone cysts in children aged between 3 and 16 years, with a mean follow-up of five years, have been reviewed. The diagnosis in these uncommon lesions was straightforward in 22 cases, based on the clinical, radiological and macroscopic features. The histological characteristics confirmed the diagnosis. Apart from these typical lesions, there were some cases in which the diagnosis remained doubtful in spite of a review of the sections and a re-assessment of the radiological and clinical findings. For the surgeon, the diagnosis is primarily from a unicameral bone cyst, whose treatment is very different. For the pathologist, the diagnostic problem is not so much from benign dystrophies, which are often difficult to distinguish from them, but from rare lesions in children, such as telangiectatic sarcoma, which have a more serious prognosis. The high recurrence rate, in four cases out of eleven, after curettage led to a preference for more radical treatment whenever possible, such as excision or resection, which was performed in 14 cases and which limited the liability to recurrence. Aneurysmal bone cyst is a benign tumour whose severity depends on its site, especially in the spine, where there is a risk of neurological complications, on its size, which may render surgical removal difficult and on its proximity to the growth plate, which may result in disturbance to growth which not infrequently occurs.