Brown tumors: Iconographic review of 4 cases

With the advent of routine calcemia screening, hyperparathyroidism is usually discovered in the early stages and treated appropriately before significant skeletal changes occur.
Brown tumors represent a pathognomonic yet rare feature of hyperparathyroidism, and they can affect virtually any bone and manifest as pathological fractures, bone pain or remain asymptomatic.
Their imaging appearance is often non-specific, especially when they are multiple and consequently mistaken for malignancy, which is more commonly encountered in clinical practice.
Their diagnosis relies essentially on biology, with assessments of parathormone serum levels and phosphocalcic markers.
Over a period of 6 years, we have collected 4 cases of brown tumors, of which 3 were multiple and unique in one case affecting the maxillary bone, and we propose an iconographic review including different examinations (CT, MRI, PET-scan and scintigraphy) in order to approach the different imaging aspects of this entity and its etiologies.
Their treatment implicates mainly the treatment of the cause of hyperparathyroidism.