Isolated avulsion fracture of the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle in a young boy

Abstract

An isolated avulsion fracture of the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle without associated ligamentous or tendinous injury is a rare injury.To our knowledge there are only two reports of such cases in the English medical literature.We report an avulsion fracture of the medial femoral condyle at the insertion of the medial head of gastrocnemius muscle in a 13- year-old boy following a skiing injury, the youngest patient with this injury reported to date. Our goal is to review the literature focusing on the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnostic approach of such injuries often very difficult to recognize by simple radiographs. © 2018 Lebanese Order of Physicians. All rights reserved.