Osteoblastoma: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment

Osteoblastoma (synonyms: giant osteoid osteoma, osteogenic fibroma) is a benign bone-forming tumor, histologically identical to osteoid osteoma, but differing from it in its larger size, clinical picture and data from radiation research methods.

Among all primary bone tumors, osteoblastoma is registered in less than 1% of patients; in the group of benign bone tumors, it is about 3%. In more than half of patients, the tumor is detected in the first two decades of life.

Clinically, osteoblastomas are characterized by pain syndrome. Its intensity is less pronounced than in osteoid osteoma. However, over time, the pain intensifies, soft tissue hypotrophy of the affected limb, lameness, and limitation of the function of the nearby joint appear. Most often, the tumor is localized in the metaphyses of long tubular bones, vertebrae, and sacrum. The main differences between osteoblastoma and osteoid osteoma in radiography and CT are that the size of osteoblastoma exceeds 1.5 cm in the absence of a zone of pronounced osteosclerosis along the periphery of the "enlightenment" area, and in scintigraphy - more pronounced local hyperemia (on average 170%) and hyperfixation of the radiopharmaceutical (on average 500%). Differential diagnostics should be carried out with Langerhans cell histiocytosis and enchondroma.

Treatment of osteoblastoma is surgical - marginal resection of the pathological focus with bone grafting of the post-resection defect.

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