Diagnosis of acute bone/bone marrow infarction of the mandible in sickle hemoglobinopathy. Report of a case.

Vasoocclusive involvement of bones is a common cause of acute morbidity in patients with sickle cell hemoglobinopathy. Although the literature contains only two reports of infarction of the mandible in sickle cell vasooccusive crisis, earlier authors were often limited to the clinical examination as their primary or only diagnostic method. This article presents a sickle cell patient in vasoocclusive crisis who subsequently developed infarction of the right mandible without an infectious or inflammatory cause and was ultimately diagnosed by nuclear bone imaging scans.