Pathologic fractures in children and adolescents can result from a diverse array of disorders namely; metabolic, endocrine, neoplastic, infectious, immunologic, and genetic skeletal dysplasias.
In circumstances where other pathologies are excluded (for example, cancer), a pathologic fracture is diagnostic of osteoporosis irrespective of bone mineral density.
Based on Mirel's score (if the score is more than 8), bone fixation should be done prophylactically. Fixation is done by internal fixation rather than conservatively, along with treatment of the underlying cause.4
Once a fracture has occurred, intramedullary fixation is the usual surgical management for certain long bones, such as the femur, tibia, and fibula.5 For pathological fractures in the setting of metastatic disease where there is a need for postoperative radiation, a carbon fiber implant may be preferred due to its radiolucency, allowing better visualization of the affected area on x-ray imaging.6
Salehi, Sana; Abedi, Aidin; Gross, Jordan S.; Gholamrezanezhad, Ali (2019-06-22). "Prayer's fracture: rare cases of knee insufficiency fracture in non-weight-bearing femoral condyle". Clinical Imaging. 58: 80–83. doi:10.1016/j.clinimag.2019.06.013. ISSN 0899-7071. PMID 31279988. S2CID 195830673. https://www.clinicalimaging.org/article/S0899-7071(19)30126-3/abstract ↩
Vanasse, Alain; Dagenais, Pierre; Niyonsenga, Théophile; Grégoire, Jean-Pierre; Courteau, Josiane; Hemiari, Abbas (2005). "Bone mineral density measurement and osteoporosis treatment after a fragility fracture in older adults: regional variation and determinants of use in Quebec". BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 6 (1): 33. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-6-33. ISSN 1471-2474. PMC 1187894. PMID 15969760. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1187894 ↩
Maheswari. Essential Orthopedics (3 ed.). Jaypee Publications. p. 4. ↩
Mirels H (October 2003). "Metastatic disease in long bones: A proposed scoring system for diagnosing impending pathologic fractures. 1989". Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res. (415 Suppl): S4–13. doi:10.1097/01.blo.0000093045.56370.dd. PMID 14600587. S2CID 43255503. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩
Hogan WB, Bluman EM. Brostrom-Gould procedure for lateral ankle instability. J Med Insight. 2024;2024(23). doi:10.24296/jomi/23. ↩
Rizk, PA; Werenski, JO; Lozano-Calderon, SA (2024). "Carbon fiber implant for fixation of a pathologic subtrochanteric fracture". J Med Insight. 2024 (443). doi:10.24296/jomi/443. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩