Clinicopathological pattern of non neoplastic skeletal diseases seen in a tertiary care hospital in Lahore

Aims: non neoplastic skeletal lesions especially pyogenic and tuberculous osteomyelitis constitute a significant subgroup of bone and joint diseases. methods: a cross sectional descriptive study in lahore from january 2006 to january 2009. after detailed documentation of the clinical account,bone biopsies were reviewed under microscope from 172 cases presenting with variable clinical symptoms. results: there were 117 males and 55 females (m:f=2.2:1). the mean age of the patients was 49.5±6 years,(age range 02-97 years) with the maximum number of cases (n=51) in the age range of 11-20 years. a wide variety of clinical lesions including inflammatory (n=92),infectious (n=53),cysts(n=07) and synovial diseases (n=20) were seen. non specific inflammation (n=52),followed by pyogenic infections (n=32) and tuberculous osteomyelitis (n=) constituted the major group. conclusion: non neoplastic bone diseases present in a wide variety. males are twice affected as compared to females and most diseases present in younger age group. non specific inflammation and tuberculous osteomyelitis constitute the major group. lower limbs are commonly affected sites.