Osteitis Fibrosa, Monocystic, Polycystic, and Diffuse1

IT would be presumption on my part were I to present views regarding the roentgenologic aspects of my subject to a group of men so well versed in roentgen interpretation as you are, but just as we orthopedists, while strictly specializing, find it to our advantage to know much of the physiologic and biologic activities of disease as well as the purely mechanical, so, too, I think it is not amiss to review our knowledge of relatively rare conditions and present the clinical side of a question as well as the roentgenologic. The earliest authentic description of cystic conditions of the bones is that of von Recklinghausen, in 1891, who described the type known as diffuse osteitis fibrosa cystica, or, as I shall hereinafter call it, osteitis fibrosa polycystica. Since that time numerous cases have been reported, but there has long been, and still is, controversy as to the classification of types, the etiology, and the relationship to metabolic disturbances and to other bone conditions. Of late years there has...