A Case of Bilateral Fatigue Fracture of the Fibula

Fracture of a bone may result from ordinary func tional activity in the absence of any obvious injury or violence. Such fractures are referred to as fatigue or stress fractures, and occur spontaneously in apparently normal bone as a consequence of the summation of stresses which singly are insufficient to produce frac ture (Burrows, 1948). The incidence of this condition rose sharply during the second world war, but since then, as judged by published cases, it would appear to be an infrequent finding. By far the commonest site of this form of fracture is in one of the metatarsal bones; the tibia is involved five or six times less frequently, and the fibula forty times less frequently (Hartley, 1943). The series of 32 fatigue fractures analysed by Richmond, 1945, showed the following locations: metatarsals, 25; upper third of tibia, 5, and lower third of fibula, 2. The case reported below is an example of fatigue fractures involving the lower third of both fibulae in a middle-aged housewife.