Soft tissue chondroma: a case report and literature review

ABSTRACT

Extra skeletal soft tissue chondroma is a very rare, slow progressing benign tumor. It has a specific tendency for hand and feet. It can sometimes be misdiagnosed as a synovial cyst or a more serious condition such as synovial sarcoma. Moreover, it can exhibit worrying radiologic and histological features mimicking chondrosarcomas. This study presents a very rare case of soft tissue chondroma of the foot. A 42 year old Egyptian male patient was presented with a slow developing swelling on the left foot for 7 years duration. The patient was examined thoroughly and proved to have a hard, fixed, non-tender swelling of approximately 4x 2.5 cm in size with well defined borders involving the dorsal aspect of the proximal left foot. The patient was investigated using the following techniques; plain X-ray, MRI, and FNAC of the swelling which gave an impression of a benign chondroma arising from the soft tissues of the dorsum of the left foot. The patient felt pain while walking and wearing shoes, and was therefore scheduled for excision of the mass under general anesthesia and limb exsanguinations at Ghayathi hospital. Postoperative histopathological assessment identified a soft tissue chondroma. There is limited literature and limited cases reported of soft tissue chondroma. So far, this is the second case of its kind to ever be reported at Ghayathi hospital