Painless fibro-osseous lesion of the rib resembling osteoid osteoma: a report of six cases.

Six cases of an unusual fibro-osseous rib lesion are presented. These six lesions were asymptomatic, and five were found incidentally as solitary hot spots on bone scans which had been performed to rule out metastatic carcinoma. One was found incidentally in a rib resected for another reason. Histologically, these painless lesions most closely resemble osteoid osteomas. This study also documents that solitary rib hot spots are almost always benign even if the patient has a primary carcinoma.