Hodgkin's disease in bone

Hodgkin's disease is not exclusively a disease of the lymphatic system. Involvement of every organ system including the skeleton has been reported. The present discussion of Hodgkin's disease in bone is based on a review of the literature and a study of 94 previously unreported cases from the Veterans Administration Research Hospital, Chicago, and the Evanston Hospital (Evanston, Ill.) of which 11 showed osseous involvement. Askanazy (2) described the pathologic aspects of osseous involvement in 1920, some twenty years after the clear definition of Hodgkin's disease as an entity by Reed and Sternberg. Grossman and Weis (6) first recorded the radiographic features of the bony lesions in 1922. Incidence The reported incidence of Hodgkin's disease in bone varies widely with the diagnostic criteria. A distinction must be made between medullary and cortical lesions. In the spongiosa the disease may be widespread without giving rise to symptoms or radiographic signs. The true incidence cannot be determined beca...