Pathological fractures through non-ossifying fibromas. Review of the Mayo Clinic experience

Twenty-three cases of a pathological fracture through a lesion verified histologically as non-ossifying fibroma were seen over a forty-nine-year period. The average age of the patients at the time of fracture was twelve years. All fractures except one were located in the lower extremity, most frequently in the distal end of the tibia (ten). The percentage of bone occupied by the fibroma in the transverse plane exceeded 50 per cent on both the anteroposterior and the lateral radiographs in every patient. The vertical length was always the maximum dimension and in all non-fibular lesions exceeded thirty-three millimeters. Treatment consisted of cast immobilization with biopsy at a later date, simple curettage, curettage and autogenous bone-grafting, or segmental resection of fibular lesions.