DigitalCommons@PCOM

Soft tissue chondroma of the thumb

Suwanee, GA

A chondroma is a slow-growing, benign cartilaginous tumor. When a chondroma occurs in soft tissue without any involvement of the surrounding bone, it is known as a soft tissue chondroma which is an especially rare type of malignancy that has a predilection for the hands and feet. A soft tissue chondroma originates from either the synovial sheath of long tendons, para-articular tissues, or paratendinous soft tissues. This type of tumor can often be misdiagnosed as several different pathologies, including but not limited to, a ganglion cyst, osteochondroma, synovial chondromatosis, or even malignant examples such as a chondrosarcoma or synovial sarcoma. Diagnosis of this tumor is difficult using radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging so careful histopathological analysis must be made of the mass to rule out worrying cell atypia. While research in literature has been limited, the few studies and clinical case reports available indicate that these malignancies are caused by repeated microtrauma. In this article, we report a case of a soft tissue chondroma arising from the thumb that was definitively treated with surgical resection.