Antonia Bintoudi

Bone cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a rare condition requiring a high level of suspicion during primary diagnosis. Wide excision of the lesion is the gold standard of treatment, posing however extreme challenges in certain parts of the skeleton, since it may well be accompanied by increased morbidity. We report the case of a 35-year-old Caucasian female with iliac bone CE, referred to our department (a regional referral center for the treatment of patients with musculoskeletal tumors). The patient reported gradually increasing dull pain at the right iliac fossa and antalgic gait, with an onset of approximately 5 years before her referral. Bone CE diagnosis was established based on physical examination, imaging studies, and two subsequent CT-guided core needle biopsies, performed within a period of 3 months, of which the second was diagnostic. Following a musculoskeletal tumor multidisciplinary meeting, it was decided that the optional treatment was the surgical removal of the cyst. Aiming to minimize the morbidity accompanying a wide resection of the lesion, we performed extended curettage of the lesion through a typical iliac spine approach, followed by microwave ablation of the walls of the remaining bone cavity. The remaining iliac defect was treated with the installation of polymethyl methacrylate bone cement. The patient reported immediate remission of symptoms postoperatively and was able to return to everyday activities two weeks postoperatively. She began oral treatment with albendazole on the 7th postoperative day. She remained symptom-free for a period of 25 months, until she developed a seroma at the gluteal area, which was treated with simple drainage. On her latest follow-up six months later, she remained symptom-free and was able to perform all her previous activities. Microwave ablation may serve as a useful adjuvant modality when treating patients with bone CE, in order to prevent relapse of the disease.

Only three cases of patients suffering from a localized chronic form of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) successfully treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) have been published so far. This is the first case report of a patient with a localized chronic form of LCH of the femur, which was successfully treated with percutaneous image-guided RFA, and who was evaluated pre-RFA and followed up post-RFA for a period of 48 months, in order to validate the safety and efficacy of this method and to obtain imaging studies depicting the actual in situ changes taking place post-RFA. RFA was proved to be a safe and efficient method when treating patients with a localized chronic form of LCH.

Step aerobics is one of the most popular exercises with established benefits to cardiovascular status. This activity is associated with injuries which include patellar or talar chondral lesions, quadriceps tendinopathy, Achilles tendinopathy or tear, shin splints and muscle soreness. The purpose of this case report is to present two step aerobics athletes, suffering from anterior knee pain. We observed that their knee MR examination disclosed only suprapatellar fat pad edema. No other findings were noticed. In addition, we discuss the possible pathogenetic mechanism of this entity which has not been previously reported in the literature.

Although meniscofemoral ligaments are distinct anatomic units, their anatomy and function are controversial from an anatomic and radiologic point of view. Five hundred knee MR examinations were retrospectively studied in an effort to demonstrate the incidence and variations regarding sex and age distribution, as well as the anatomy of the meniscofemoral ligament at magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were mostly men, three hundred and twelve, in contrast with women who were fewer, one hundred eighty-eight patients. The mean age of the patients who were included in this study was 46 years. More than half of them were between 20 and 40 years old; one hundred thirty-three patients among 20 to 30 years old and one hundred and one patients among 31 and 40 years old, in total two hundred thirty-four patients.

We present a case of left breast necrosis following coronary artery bypass grafting which was misdiagnosed as a breast cancer. Breast necrosis after myocardial revascularization is an extremely rare complication of the surgical procedure using the most conventional graft which is the left internal mammary artery. The left internal mammary artery is the main blood supplying artery of the left breast.