Melorheostosis on the second finger of the hand

Abstract

The disease onset is often in childhood, adolescence, and rarely at birth.[1] It can be diagnosed at any age, and it is seen equally in both sexes.[2] About half of the cases present signs and symptoms by the age of 20.[1] While the disease's progression is fast during growth, it slows down when growth stops. Linear hyperostosis of the cortex is the enlargement of the medullary canal and periosteum, which resembles a typical ’melting wax’ appearance of the affected bone. Hyperostosis is often accompanied by hyperplasia and abnormalities in adjacent connective tissues.[2] This disease may result in growth disturbance in the extremity, joint ankylosis, restricted movement, Melorheostosis is a rare disease with skeletal system involvement. The etiology of the disease, which usually manifests itself with bending and pain in the long bones, is still unknown. We present a 20-year-old male patient admitted to our outpatient clinic with complaints of deformity and pain in the second finger of the hand that had become more evident in the last several years. Intense sclerosing and cortical thickening were observed radiologically in the second phalanges and metacarpal. Deformities in radiological evaluation, ‘flowing candle wax’ image in the medulla, and further laboratory examinations enabled us to diagnose the patient with a rare disease, melorheostosis. The patient, who was treated conservatively, has been attending his follow-up examinations regularly for the last three years and is still being followed up conservatively. In this case, we presented a case of this rare disease, which is the rarest hand involvement, in detail.