11 October 2025

"Butterfly" hemivertebrae


I've probably viewed 100,000+ chest xrays and CT scans in my life, but I've never before encountered this anomaly.  You learn something every day.  

Embedded images from the New England Journal of Medicine.  A concise summary of the radiographic features, associated clinical syndromes, and ddx is available at Radiopaedia.

4 comments:

  1. That sure looks like it would hurt. Is that an injury? or congenital?

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    1. The parts of the text that show up in different colors are called "links." Try using your mouse thingy to click on the second one.

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  2. Edison is definitely out of my wheelhouse and as I feared it was a little rough going for me. It looks as though, and please let me know if I'm wrong, that it is a congenital problem and that, at least mostly, it doesn't hurt.

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    1. It is, in fact, a congenital disorder caused by incomplete development of the vertebra and is typically an incidental finding, but sometimes results in back pain similar to arthritis.

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