An eleven-year-old boy with classic hemophilia was successfully treated with deep x-ray therapy for painful bilateral hemophilic pseudotumors of the calcaneus and cuboid in 1959. At the time of follow-up examination in 1967, he had been without recurrence of the pseudotumors for nine years and seven months on the left foot and for ten years and ten months on the right foot.
His current problem was osteomyelitis of the distal part of the left femur associated with a continually bleeding skin ulceration. Deep x-ray therapy was successful in stopping the bleeding from the ulceration. Mid-thigh amputation of the left lower extremity was eventually carried out. Deep x-ray therapy was helpful in controlling the painful effects of postoperative bleeding into the stump.
Microscopic examination of the irradiated left cuboid bone suggests that the marked fibrous reaction generated by the irradiation acts as a mechanical blocking agent to prevent extravasation of blood into the surrounding tissue.