Drummer’s Fracture of the Third Metatarsal Bone

Abstract

A 14-year-old girl presented with a painful right foot. She was an elite water-polo player and could recall no history of specific trauma to the foot. On close and persistent questioning, she admitted to having taken up playing the drums recently, with practice sessions of up to 4 h/d. She used the foot drum with her right foot and had noticed that this was becoming increasingly painful and prevented her playing the instrument for the last 2 days. Plain films of the foot were originally reported as normal, but revised to abnormal after the scintigraphic study. Bone scintigraphy confirmed a stress fracture of the right 3rd metatarsal bone. Stress fractures of the 3rd metatarsal bone are rare with only 2 previous reports in the literature.