Sports-related stress fracture of the clavicle: a case report

Stress fracture of the clavicle is extremely rare, even in sports medicine. The authors have treated a young man who, for several years practised a traditional physical activity in which groups of people make human towers by standing on each others shoulders. For the last three years the patient experienced pain in the medial aspect of the right clavicle when he increased the intensity of his training. Bone scintigraphy revealed endosteal thickening which was indicative of a stress reaction. The mechanism of injury, the diagnosis of stress fracture, and a review of the literature are presented.