Osseous deformity from osteomyelitis variolosa. A case report.

Smallpox osteomyelitis (osteomyelitis variolosa) with gross clinical and radiologic deformities of the elbows, hands and feet occurred in a 53-year-old Vietnamese refugee. This disease, once common in Asia and Africa, may cause permanent damage to joints and growth centers in the course of the acute infection in childhood. The roentgenographic features are sufficiently diagnostic to exclude congenital dysplasia of the skeletal system, leprosy, or sequelae of thermal injury, and other joint disorders.