The limping child: a manifestation of acute leukemia

Nine patients who presented to our institution with the chief complaint of a limp and no history of trauma were subsequently diagnosed with leukemia. A review of these patients identified clinical and laboratory findings that helped to establish the diagnosis. The presence of an antalgic gait with complaints of pain of variable intensity and duration, an irritable hip or knee, a mild to moderate elevation in body temperature, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, thrombocytopenia, anemia, decreased neutrophils, increased lymphocytes, or blast cells on the peripheral blood smear should cause the physician to suspect leukemia in a limping child. Bone marrow biopsy confirms the diagnosis.