Osteomyelitis variolosa: Forgotten complication of an eradicated disease.

BACKGROUND

Orthopedic manifestations and sequelae of small pox disease are largely forgotten. Presening features in the modern era are not only the classical deformities but also includes precocious arthritis, pathological fractures and joint instability.

OBJECTIVES

To conduct a thorough and systematic review of the literature for all articles reporting osteomyelitis variolosa and its sequelae post eradication and to present an additional case as an illustration.

STUDY

DESIGN

Systematic review and case report.

METHOD: ology: PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant articles using different combinations of the keywords till 20th June 2017. All articles reporting cases of osteomyelitis variolosa following small pox eradication were included. Pearling of the bibliographies of selected articles was conducted to locate articles missed by the primary database search. Data from these reports were collected on pre-defined forms and the results were analysed.

RESULTS

A total of 8 cases have been reported in the literature so far post-eradication of small pox and all cases are from India. These cases have predominant involvement of elbow followed by hands, feet and ankle. Characteristic clinical signs in the present era are secondary arthritis, pathological fractures, joint instability and some cases even have incidental presentation.The diagnosis is further confirmed by plain radiographs which show pathognomonic features of this condition. Rate of missed/misdiagnosis is very high due to rarity of this condition. All cases in the published literature were managed conservatively except those presenting with pathological fracture.

CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this study is to remind clinicians of an easily recognised sequelae of an eradicated disease and make them aware of its complications.