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Femoral Stress Fracture
Case Detail
| Anatomy: Musculoskeletal |
 Joseph Junewick, MD FACR |
| Diagnostic Category: Trauma |
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| Created: over 2 years ago |
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| Updated: over 2 years ago |
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| Tags:
PEDS
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| Modality/Study Types:
MR
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Activities:  PDF  ImageJA |
History
Teenage athlete with unresolving knee pain.
Case Images
Diagnosis
Femoral Stress Fracture
Findings
MR – Linear hypointensity incompletely traverses the medial distal femur. Note the moderate adjacent marrow edema and periostitis.
Discussion
Stress injuries involving the femoral diaphysis are less frequent than those involving the femoral neck or tibia. They occur with a substantial prevalence in middle and long-distance runners. Commonly these fractures occur along the medial aspect of the shaft; this predilection may related to the biomechanical forces exerted on the bone during weight bearing (the medial aspect of the femoral shaft is under compression and the lateral aspect is under tension). The degree of medial compression force increases with contraction of the vastus medialis and adductor longus and brevis muscles.
Reference
Hwang B, Fredericson M, Chung CB et al. MRI Findings of Femoral Diaphyseal Stress Injuries in Athletes. AJR (2005);185:166-173.