Why this ‘bubbly’ bone won’t come out in the wash
The rare complication resulted in one leg being 10cm shorter than the other
When these ‘soap bubbles’ showed up on an X-ray of a patient’s femur, they were a sign he had anything but a clean bill of health.
The 37-year-old man presented to an orthopaedic clinic with progressive difficulty walking. He had haemophilia type A and a history of inadequate factor VIII replacement therapy.
Ten years earlier, the patient had fractured his left femoral shaft. A resultant malunion was managed without surgery.
Since then, he had experienced repeated episodes of left thigh swelling and progressive shortening of the leg, which was now 10cm shorter than the right.
