BACKGROUND: Acute plastic deformation refers to a traumatic bending or bowing without a detectable cortical defect.
METHODS: We describe a rare case from an individual that was exhumed from the Hispano-Mudejar necropolis in Uceda (Guadalajara, Spain) dated between the 13th and 14th centuries AD. The case corresponds to an adult woman, with a bowing involvement of the left ulna and radius. After making the differential diagnosis with various pathologies likely to present with this alteration, we reached the diagnosis of acute plastic deformation of the forearm through external and radiological examination and comparison with the healthy contralateral forearm.
CONCLUSIONS: Acute plastic deformation is a rare traumatic injury, not described until the last century and only rarely described in palaeopathological contexts. We contribute a new case, the first being sufficiently documented, contributing to the knowledge and diagnosis of this type of trauma in the ancient bone, while deepening the knowledge of the living conditions of the medieval Mudejar population of Uceda.

OBJECTIVE: To present a case of possible paralysis from early modern Vilnius and to discuss the potential level of care that was provided in the society of that time.
METHODS: A partially disturbed skeleton of a young female from a 16th-17th century Orthodox Christian cemetery.
METHODS: Macroscopic, osteometric and X-ray examinations coupled with a literature review aimed at providing a differential diagnosis.
RESULTS: The skeletal remains showed signs of disuse atrophy most probably due to a neurological disorder acquired in the woman\'s late teens. Differentials suggest that the observed limb atrophy was most likely a consequence of poliomyelitis.
CONCLUSIONS: The case of a young female with paralysis presented in this paper could serve as an example of care provided by her household.
CONCLUSIONS: This study substantially contributes to further understanding of the nature and quality of care provided to disabled individuals in their households even in the absence of written sources.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a degree of diagnostic ambiguity due to the application of routine clinical criteria to paleopathological cases.
UNASSIGNED: The article makes several recommendations for future research, e.g., systematic investigation of possible cases of bone atrophy in a broader sociocultural context, as well as searching for evidence of gastrointestinal infections, especially poliomyelitis, supplemented by the application of biomolecular technologies.