Multiple stress fractures of the lower extremity in healthy young men.

Stress fractures result from abnormal stresses imposed on normal bones by the continued and repeated actions of muscles or from normal stresses imposed on abnormal bones. The risk factors that can cause such stress fractures include excessive use, such as, in soldiers or athletes, nutritional deficiencies, and endocrine disorders. In addition, disease may arise from long-standing rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, corticosteroid therapy, joint stiffness or contracture, or the correction of angular deformity. In these cases, stress fractures may occur in one area or multiple areas. However, no case of multiple stress fractures in a young man who was not a professional athlete and who had no stress fracture risk factor, such as, an endocrine disease, has been previously reported.