Bone Marrow Edema
Bone marrow edema is excess fluid inside the bone marrow, usually a sign of injury, stress, infection, inflammation, or a healing process within the bone.
When to get help quickly: Prompt review is important if there is fever, redness, sudden severe pain, recent significant trauma, or a known infection that could spread to bone.
Common symptoms
It often causes deep, aching bone or joint pain that is worse with weight-bearing and may not improve with rest, sometimes with swelling around the joint.
When imaging helps
Imaging shows where in the bone the edema is and helps tell the cause apart — stress injury, joint inflammation, recent fracture, avascular necrosis, or infection.
What radiology does
MRI is the test that shows bone marrow edema clearly; X-rays may be normal in the early stages.
What usually happens next
Management depends on the cause — rest and offloading for stress injuries, treatment of joint inflammation, antibiotics for infection, or specialist follow-up for AVN.
Seen this on your report?
Your doctor or the radiologist who wrote it can tell you what it means for you.