Management of a Rare Case of Cavernous Medullary Intraosseous Hemangioma in Proximal Tibia of a 38-year-old Female

INTRODUCTION: Intraosseous hemangiomas (IH) are one of the rarest bone tumors that an orthopedic surgeon comes across, more so in the long bones. It most often affects adult females, severely blunting their activities of daily living, coupled with potential debilitating complications such as pathological fracture. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 38-year-old female who presented with long standing pain and swelling in the left knee. Radiology, in the form of plain radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging, narrowed the diagnosis down to a benign form of osteoblastoma or hemangioma. With this in mind, the patient underwent radical excision of the lytic lesion, along with a margin of the surrounding normal bone. The defect was filled with impaction bone grafting and supplemented by a hydroxyapatite block and a poly ethyl ether ketone plate. The patient had excellent clinical, functional, and radiological outcomes at 6 months follow-up. CONCLUSION: With the inherent rarity of IH, especially when it affects the long bones, it has barely been reported in orthopedic literature. Subsequently, management protocols for such lesions are ill-defined, which can be deleterious to the patient as well as the surgeon. Through this case report, we show how to approach a patient presenting with associated complaints, and show a detailed outline of an efficacious management regime that gave excellent outcomes in our patient.