A case of infantile scurvy treated only with vitamin C: a forgotten disease.

Abstract

Scurvy is a rare disease occurring because of a nutritional deficiency of vitamin C. In the paediatric age group the disease is usually characterized by musculoskeletal manifestations. Treatment is straightforward and consists of vitamin C administration. However, if the patient is left untreated, scurvy may be life-threatening. We report here the case of a 16-month-old infant with scurvy. After proper treatment, the complaints disappeared in a very short time period and the boy grew up as a completely normal child during the 12 years follow-up. Nowadays only few physicians have experience with this disease, and ascorbic acid deficiency can thus easily be overlooked. With this paper we aimed to remind of the efficacy of vitamin C administration for patients with scurvy.

• Authors: Aysegul Bursali, Sarper Gursu, Alper Gursu, Timur Yildirim
• Journal: Acta orthopaedica Belgica (Acta Orthop Belg) Vol. 75 Issue 3 Pg. 428-30 (Jun 2009) ISSN: 0001-6462 [Print] Belgium
• PMID: 19681335 (Publication Type: Case Reports, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Vitamins
• Ascorbic Acid

Topics

• Ascorbic Acid (therapeutic use)
• Femur (diagnostic imaging)
• Humans
• Infant
• Male
• Radiography
• Scurvy (drug therapy)
• Vitamins (therapeutic use)