PAGET'S DISEASE (OSTEITIS DEFORMANS)

Abstract

PAGET'S disease of bone (osteitis deformans) was described in the latter part of the 19th century, although it probably existed in ancient times. Butlin¹believed that the Neanderthal skull had the lesions of osteitis deformans. Denninger²reported the characteristic bone changes of this disease among American Indian skeletons excavated in the region of the Illinois River Valley; Fisher³unearthed a pair of tibiae with the bone changes of osteitis deformans in the village of Lynxville in Crawford County, Wisconsin. In 1873 Czerny⁴named the disease osteitis deformans, but it was Paget⁵who correlated and described the clinical and pathological features. In his first report in 1876 he analyzed the cases reported by Urany in 1867 and Wilks in 1869 and added several of his own. In two later papers⁶he reviewed data on 23 patients. Since then, the medical profession has applied the name "Paget's disease of bone" to the