Eburnation describes the appearance of bone following a degenerative process in which subchondral or otherwise exposed bone acquires a non-anatomical sclerotic, microimpacted, and "polished" articular surface.
This phenomenon typically arises in one of two situations:
- hypertrophic non-union of a fracture - often featuring pseudoarthrosis
- osteoarthritis - following obliteration of intervening articular cartilage
Radiographic features
Radiography
Non-specific sclerosis at involved margins, in context of concomitant evidence of one of the above two situations.
MRI
Appearances can be complex and feature non-intuitive T1 and T2 signal owing to multiple combined histological phenomena.
History and etymology
Eburnation is derived from the Latin "eburneus" meaning "of ivory", from "ebur" meaning "ivory" 1.