Case 9-2003

Presentation of Case An 18-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of back and leg pain and a nondiagnostic biopsy specimen from a paravertebral mass. The patient had been well until eight months earlier, when the back pain began. Despite the use of ibuprofen and local application of ice, the pain increased, and three months before admission, pain developed in the right lower leg. A chiropractor obtained a radiograph of the spine, which revealed a compression fracture at the L3 vertebra. About one month before admission, a computed tomographic (CT) scan of the lumbosacral spine, obtained at another facility, . . .