An unexpected complication of a heterotopic ossified abdominal scar.

AIM: Presentation and discussion of a case of heterotopic ossification of a vertical abdominal surgical scar.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION: A recent trauma in an 70 year old patient, followed by a sudden internal hemorrhage because of a penetration in abdomen of a bone stump, originated from a fracture of a not known heterotopic ossification of an old median abdominal scar, of a laparotomy of many years earlier for perforated duodenal ulcer.

RESULTS

An emergency surgery was mandatory DISCUSSION: Pathogenesis of heterotopic ossification, as rare metaplastic phenomenon outside of the normal bone tissue, still unknown and speculative.

CONCLUSION

Despite the rarity the complications of heterotopic bone formation can also be very dramatic following a trauma that transforms the new bone into traumatic agent, as in the present observation.

KEY WORDS: Heterotopic ossification, Ossified abdominal scar.