A Diagnostic Dilemma: Two Case Reports of Rare Presentations of Swelling in the Medial End of Clavicle
Joseph S Pittappillil, Thyagarajan Umasankar, Raghavendran Balasubramanian, Pradeep Purushothaman, Rayeez Ahmed
Keywords :
Case report, Clavicle, Medial end, Swelling
Citation Information :
Pittappillil JS, Umasankar T, Balasubramanian R, Purushothaman P, Ahmed R. A Diagnostic Dilemma: Two Case Reports of Rare Presentations of Swelling in the Medial End of Clavicle. J Orth Joint Surg 2025; 7 (1):119-123.
Aim and background: Patients presenting with swellings in the medial end of the clavicle are rare. The most common differential diagnoses include trauma and, less likely, osteomyelitis, arthritis, or neoplasms.
Case description: We would like to report two cases which presented to our institute and their management, one of which was a 16-year-old boy diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma (ES) of the clavicle (nonmetastatic). The other was a 47-year-old female diagnosed with osteomyelitis of the medial end of the clavicle. The former patient received a multidisciplinary approach and underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, resection, adjuvant chemotherapy, and radiotherapy and had a good functional outcome. The latter underwent surgery, and appropriate culture-sensitive antibiotics were started, and the patient had a good recovery.
Conclusion: Swellings in the medial end of the clavicle are rare and can have varying presentations in different age-groups, and it is important to know the possible differentials and how to manage them.
Clinical significance: Patients with comparable presentations may have very different diagnoses and courses of treatment; thus, it is best to have multiple differential diagnoses in mind.
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