False diagnosis "bone tumor" in a case of a stress fracture at the medial tibia plateau

Stress fractures occur in 13.2-37.0% in running athletes. There is a decrea sing incidence of these fractures in the tibia (33%), navicular (20%), meta tarsus (20%), femur (11%), fibula (7%) and pelvis (7%). Clinically stress f ractures present themselves with uncharacteristic local pain under weightbe aring conditions. In 75% the medial tibial crest is involved. Usually the p ain disappears when the patient is non-weightbearing,As causal factors wron g training methods, oligomenorrhoe (6x incidence),low nutrition input (8x i ncidence) and a genu recurvatum-morphotype can be found. Misinterpretation can result from a similar clinical and radiological (conv entional x-ray, scintigraphy, MRI) early course in stress fractures and bon e tumors. We present a patient with a clinical diagnosis of a meniscus lesion. The fo llowing MRI was suspect for a malignant lymphoma or histiocytoma. Biopsy wa s performed and showed the final diagnosis of a stress fracture.