Osseous Abnormality Meaning

Osseous refers to bones.  An Osseous abnormality is therefore one of bones.  We can image the bones in multiple ways but most commonly we do this with X-rays.   Radiologists can describe abnormalities of bone as osseous abnormalities in reports.

What can an Osseous abnormality be?

Osseous abnormalities can represent many different kinds of abnormalities.  We call these acute if the abnormality happened recently.   These can be abnormalities like fractures or breaks and infections.

We call these chronic osseous abnormalities if they happened a while back or have been present for a long time.   More chronic osseous abnormalities can be arthritis, old fracture deformities, bone lesions or tumors in addition to others.

What does no acute osseous abnormality mean?

No acute osseous abnormality is often used by radiologists in the conclusion or impression to indicate we do not see anything in the bones that happened recently or is serious.  We often mean we don’t see a fracture or infection on X-rays.  More chronic abnormalities may be present however and will usually be described in the report.

Often we are looking for fractures when X-rays are ordered of the extremities or arms and legs.  In these cases, the radiologist will state where he sees the fracture and describe it in detail.  No acute osseous abnormality is only used when we don’t see a fracture.

More chronic findings will also be described in the report.  Some of the bone abnormalities may be referred to as osseous abnormalities.  The diagnosis will also be given.  Osseous abnormality does not tell us a diagnosis, only that there is an abnormality seen in the bone. Sometimes we do not know what the osseous abnormality is and recommend additional imaging like CT or MRI.

Normal X-rays do not exclude all abnormalities of bone.    Some fractures can not be seen on X-rays.  For example, hip fractures can not be seen on X-rays sometimes.  CT or MRI may be needed.  Same with infections.  MRI will show bone infections earlier then X-ray.  Some bone lesions may not be seen on X-ray alone.

Osseous abnormality is therefore a medical way of saying an abnormality of bone.  It says nothing about the diagnosis, whether it’s serious or if it happened recently or is more chronic.  This is more commonly said on X-ray reports but can be used for other medical imaging tests.

The radiologist will give a description and diagnosis of the Osseous abnormality when possible.  No acute osseous abnormality is more commonly used to indicate nothing is seen on an X-ray that has happened recently or is serious.