[Phlebitis in a child due to a femoral exostosis. Apropos of 1 case].

The author describes the case of a child aged 11 spontaneously presenting a right surral phlebitis. The positive diagnosis was made immediately, with the aid of Functional vascular Investigation, that is venous Doppler and venous occlusion rheoplethysmography. A standard X-ray showed the existence of a right posterior femoral exostosis which looked as though it had been a causal factor in this phlebitis. However, the aetiological proof of this could not be given until seven months later, using phlebography. A survey of the existing literature does not reveal a comparable spontaneous case, without associated causal traumatism. For one thing, femoral osteogenic exostoses do not, despite their frequent occurrence, provoke more than a minimum of vascular complications, affecting the femoral or popliteal veins in particular. For another, spontaneous phlebitis in children are extremely rare and when they do occur it is as a result of haemopathies or collagenoses. Functional Vascular Investigation, now common practice in adults, made it possible to follow very precisely the development of the phlebitis in this child, and to check up on its sequelae. The great correlation between these functional investigations and clinical explorations and phlebography confirms their merit. They could be applied more systematically in infantile pathology.