Gorham-Stout Disease Analysis

According to this article Gorham–Stout disease, is a rare disease of unknown origin, characterized by massive osteolysis and proliferation of small blood or lymphatic vessels.” This meaning occurs when an over overgrowth lymphatic vessels cause severe bone loss. The bone tissues are destroyed and reabsorbed into the body. This disease goes by many names, but its more common name is phantom bone. This rare disease tends to show up mainly in young adults and children. Gorham–Stout disease affects both genders and can occur in many places in the body, including, spine, ribs, jaw, pectoral girdle, and pelvis. In the medical journal the subject is an 8-year old boy. Furthermore, prior to the diagnosis for the disease this young boy was presumably
healthy. After more than a year of weakening in his right dominate arm the parents of the child to see a physician for further medical testing.
It was noted in the medical journal that the subject started using his non-dominate had more often as well as holding his dominate afflicted arm closely to his body. On further examination, the child’s scapula and clavicle had totally dissipated and were no longer there to support the shoulder, making his right arm appear to hang lower the left. After the initial inspection of the child an MRI was ordered shown that the reaming scapula had turned into vascularized soft tissue, which had not shown up on an x-ray. In this case, the disease only effected the scapula and clavicle of the right side of the body, and did not affect the humerus or any adjacent bone structures. In following months the patient that the disease plateaued and had not increased in severity other than the destruction of the pectoral girdle. The only thing the disease spared was the region of the glenoid process. The medical community had made some strides in the treatment of this rare disease. The primary goal in treating this disease is to inhibit bone absorption by the body to try and keep the bone structural
integrity. The most common agents used are bisphosphates and calcitonin. This combined with radiotherapy is often the treatment regimen for patients with Gorham–Stout disease. Although the primary cause of this disease is unknown, recent studies show that IL-6 is a potential humoral mediator. In the end the treatments are all aimed at halting bone degeneration and resorption.