[Angiomatosis of bone--report of two cases]

Primary angiomatosis of bone is a rare bone tumor. Only 26 cases have been reported previously in literature. The authors add two cases in this paper. In one of them the right calcaneus bone and distal phalanges of the first and second toes were involved, an occurrence not yet been described. From the clinical point of view, the authors made an attempt to put forward a criterion for distinguishing the two types of primary bone angiomatosis--angiomatosis and massive osteolysis. The first type was usually operable with good results. As for the second type, no proper therapy has been found but irradiation might relieve the symptoms and control the development of the tumor. The authors emphasize that the roentgenogram is too equivocal to diagnose and the definite diagnosis almost always depends upon histopathologic examination characterized by the formation of abundant capillaries or cavernous vessels or both.