Elbow heterotopic ossification in head-trauma patients: diagnosis and treatment.

Heterotopic ossification is a disorder characterized histologically and radiographically by normal bone formation in soft tissues that normally have no ossification properties. In severe head-trauma patients, a high incidence of heterotopic ossification occurs. The diagnosis of this pathology in these patients often is difficult for residual neurological damage. The etiology of heterotopic ossification following head trauma is unknown. Similarities have been found between heterotopic ossification and myositis ossificans, a hereditary autosomal dominant disease.