Do you remember scurvy?

ABSTRACT

Scurvy, a disease caused by a deficiency of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), is not very common disease especially in pediatric age. In the late nineteenth century, instead, we assisted to increase incidence of this problem for the use of heated milk and convenience foods. We report two cases of scurvy a child of 3 years old came to our observation for an important gums' stomatitis, fever, widespread petechiae and ecchymosis on the skin of the lower limbs; in the second moment he had pain in upper and lower limbs with difficulty in walking; a second child of 4 years came to our observation for pain lower limbs and maintained the posture of the legs down, inability to walking, with reduced muscle tone and trophism in all limbs; at the instrumental examination he had an alveolar hemorrhage. The two boys had a history of a diet completely lacking in fruits and vegetables; they were drinking almost only milk. They carried various laboratory and instrumental tests, in particular X-ray of lower limbs that showed "a thick sclerotic metaphyseal line with beak-like excrescences of tibiae and femur". The characteristic radiological appearance, the particular clinical aspects, the dietary history and the dosage of vitamin C, have led us to the diagnosis of scurvy. They started therapy with vitamin C and they had a progressive improvement in general condition.