Necrotizing periodontitis is a distinct and specific disease characterized by rapidly progressing ulceration of the interdental gingiva and then spreading along the gingival margins and leading to acute destruction of periodontal tissues. Necrotizing ulcerative gingival lesions are common in developing countries because of poor nutritional status, poor oral hygiene and debilitating conditions. In the developed world it is mostly seen in patients with the HIV infections and other immune system dysfunctions. The exact etiology of the necrotizing lesions is still unknown; however a fuso-spirochaetal infection along with weakened host immune system seems to play a major role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. Presented is the case of acute necrotizing periodontitis in a 21 year old male patient with no systemic disease but a history of tobacco use (chewing and smoking) since 7 years. The patient was managed by conservative treatment followed by surgery for the correction of gingival defects.

A rare case of tumoural calcinosis of the cervical spine is presented. Tumoural calcinosis presents with masses of dystrophic calcification in juxta-articular areas. It is very rare in the cervical spine with few cases described in the literature so far. It remains part of the differential diagnosis for any calcified spinal compressive lesion.

Eosinophilic granuloma (EG) is a rare histiocytic disorder resulting from clonal proliferation of Langerhans cells. It accounts for less than 1% of all osseous neoplasms and has a predilection for involving the axial skeleton. Although suspicion of the disease may arise from clinical features and radiographic demonstration of destructive bone lesions, it is still difficult to make a correct diagnosis without proper pathological evaluation. This is more evident when common differentials mimicking EG, both clinically and radiologically, need to be ruled out. This report describes a case of unifocal EG of the mandible occurring in a 4-year-old boy whose initial presentation led to confusion between osteomyelitis, primary bone tumour and lymphoma. A final diagnosis of EG was established after histopathological examination of the biopsy specimen.

Chondroblastoma is an uncommon osseous neoplasm that accounts for less than 1% of all bone tumours. It characteristically arises in the epiphysis or epimetaphyseal region of long bones and has been reported to affect people of all ages with slight male predilection. WHO has defined chondroblastoma as ‘a benign, cartilage-producing neoplasm usually arising in the epiphyses of skeletally immature patients’. The authors document the cytological features on fine-needle aspiration cytology of a chondroblastoma which appeared as a lytic lesion in the upper end of the right fibula, an uncommon site, in an 18-year-old male patient. X-ray feature combined with fine-needle aspiration cytology favoured the diagnosis of chondroblastoma, which was further confirmed by histopathological examination.