[Sternocostoclavicular hyperostosis: a report of nineteen cases with special reference to its etiology and treatment].

Nineteen patients with sternocostoclavicular hyperostosis were reviewed retrospectively. Of particular interest were their responses to antibiotics and prostaglandin inhibitors. The prostaglandin inhibitors relieved the pain within four weeks in 16 of 18 patients. In most cases, however, the inhibitors gradually became less effective. Oral antibiotics were more effective than the inhibitors in relieving the pain in 8 of 10 patients who were given antibiotics. Pustulosis palmaris et plantaris, commonly associated with sternocostoclavicular hyperostosis, diminished after antibiotic therapy as did the chest pain in most cases. The similarities between age and sex distribution, and the responses to antibiotics of the patients with sternocostoclavicular hyperostosis and those with pustulosis suggest that these disorders have a common etiology, and that the pustulosis may represent "bacterid reaction", and the hyperostosis may also be a manifestation of a systemic reaction to a focal infection.