Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 6, 2023; 11(1): 193-200
Published online Jan 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i1.193
Post-traumatic heterotopic ossification in front of the ankle joint for 23 years: A case report and review of literature
Zheng Xu, Zhou-Zhou Rao, Zhong-Wen Tang, Zhen-Qi Song, Ming Zeng, Hao-Li Gong, Jie Wen
Zheng Xu, Zhong-Wen Tang, Zhen-Qi Song, Ming Zeng, Hao-Li Gong, Jie Wen, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China
Zhou-Zhou Rao, Key Laboratory of Translational Cancer Stem Cell Research, Department of Physiology, Hunan Normal University School of Medicine, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China
Jie Wen, Department of Anatomy, Hunan Normal University school of Medicine, Changsha 410013, Hunan, China
Author contributions: Xu Z and Rao ZZ contribute equally to this study, they share co-first author, Tang ZW conceived and coordinated the study, designed, Song ZQ and Zeng M performed and analyzed the experiments, Xu Z wrote the paper; Gong HL and Wen J did the follow-up with the patients; JW did the data analysis and carried out the data collection and revised the paper.
Supported by Scientific research project of Hunan Education Department, No. 21B0075; and Science project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission, No. B2015-82.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent for the publication of these details was obtained from patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Wen, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University, No. 61 West Jiefang Road, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China. cashwj@qq.com
Received: September 25, 2022
Peer-review started: September 25, 2022
First decision: December 13, 2022
Revised: December 20, 2022
Accepted: December 23, 2022
Article in press: December 23, 2022
Published online: January 6, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Heterotopic ossification (HO) refers to the formation of new bone in non-skeletal tissues such as muscles, tendons or other soft tissues. Severe muscle and soft tissue injury often lead to the formation of HO. However, anterior HO of the ankle is rarely reported.

CASE SUMMARY

We report a patient with massive HO in front of the ankle joint for 23 years. In 1998, the patient was injured by a falling object on the right lower extremity, which gradually formed a massive heterotopic bone change in the right calf and dorsum of the foot. The patient did not develop gradual ankle function limitations until nearly 36 mo ago, and underwent resection of HO. Even after 23 years and resection of HO, the ankle joint was still able to move.

CONCLUSION

It is recommended that the orthopedist should be aware of HO and distinguish it from bone tumor.

Keywords: Heterotopic ossification, Post-traumatic, Ankle joint, Case report

Core Tip: Here we report an adult patient with 23 years of heterotopic ossification at the ankle. After the ankle was injured by a falling object (red brick), a huge bony mass gradually appeared from the ankle to the middle of the calf. The ankle joint remained 30 degree move range after surgery and the range maintained 30 degree in his 1 year follow up, and the radiology showed that there is no recurrence of heterotopic ossification.