NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Marines and other military personnel who are wounded in combat as a result of a bomb blast or other "high-energy" trauma are at risk for developing a condition known as heterotopic ossification. In this condition, bone forms within the soft tissues, such as muscle located near a fracture or other bone injury.
The prevalence of heterotopic ossification in victims of war injuries is roughly 65 percent, much higher than the rates typically reported with civilian trauma, Dr. Jonathan Agner Forsberg, from the National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues report in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
Heterotopic ossification, they note, is often associated with injuries to the brain or spinal cord, which can cause a "system-wide" inflammatory response, which is likely a principal contributor to the development of heterotopic ossification.
Because such injuries are more common in victims of war rather than civilian trauma, this may explain why heterotopic ossification is also more common in this patient population, they contend.
"Once we develop a better understanding of the events that cause heterotopic ossification, one of our primary recommendations will be treatments to prevent the condition from occurring," Forsberg said.
The findings stem from a study of 243 war-wounded patients who were treated at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, from March 2003 to December 2006.
Heterotopic ossification was seen in 157 of the patients (64.6 percent), the report indicates. Risk factors for the condition include young age (less than 30 years), the presence and severity of traumatic brain injury, amputation, multiple injuries to the extremities and more severe injury.
SOURCE: Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2009.
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