Avascular necrosis of bone: a manifestation of Cushing's disease

Cushing's disease is endogenous hypercortisolism due to a pituitary adenoma. Although exogenous hypercortisolism is a well known cause of avascular necrosis and although there have been many reports of avascular necrosis associated with endogenous Cushing's syndrome, there has only been a single well documented case report associating avascular necrosis of bone with Cushing's disease. We report four new cases of avascular necrosis of bone in patients with well documented Cushing's disease.