Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Osteogenesis Imperfect or OI is a disease that causes extremely fragile bones.  It is a congenital disease caused by a gene defect.  The severity of the condition depends on which gene was affected.  Because of the fragility of their bones people who have this disease are very prone to fractures.  depending on the severity of the disease it could cause bowed legs and arms, kyphosis, and scoliosis.  The patient with OI that I saw today, thankfully had a mild case of the disease.  Currently there are no cures for the disease, but there are measures to treat the symptoms,  OI is categorized into different types depending on the severity.  Some of types are demonstrated in the figure below.