Vertebral localization of a brown tumor: description of a case and review of the literature.

The authors report a case of a female aged 45 years submitted to a long period of hemodialysis, affected with brown tumor of the lumbar spine. Brown tumor must be taken into consideration in the differential diagnosis of osteolytic lesions of the skeleton, particularly in young, nephropathic women undergoing hemodialysis. Brown tumor has a more favorable prognosis as compared to other lesions that have similar clinical and radiographic findings, such as metastatic lesions and giant cell tumors. In the case of brown tumor, in addition to treating lesion of the spine, treatment varying depending on neurological findings and biomechanical complications (structural collapse, segmental kyphosis, pathologic fracture, etc.), removal of the parathyroids and correction of the metabolic alterations is indispensable.