Chondroblastoma of bone

Background: Chondroblastoma of bone is a rare lesion, and few large series have been reported. The purpose of this paper is to report forty-seven case s treated by one group of surgeons and to identify factors associated with more aggressive tumor behavior. Methods: Seventy-three patients,vith chondroblastoma of bone were treated b etween 1977 and 1998, We were able to obtain historical data, imaging studi es, histological findings, and adequate personal or telephone follow-up to determine the outcome for forty-seven patients. Results: The lesions were distributed widely in the skeleton, but most were in the epiphyses or apophyses of the long bones, especially the proximal p art of the tibia (eleven tumors) and the proximal part of the humerus (ten tumors). The principal presenting symptoms were pain and limitation of move ment. The treatment consisted of a variety of procedures, but the majority of the patients had intralesional curettage and packing with allograft or a utograft bone chips or polymethylmethacrylate, Most of the patients had an excellent functional result, although in three osteoarthritis developed in the adjacent joint. Seven patients (15 percent) had a local recurrence; thr ee of them had a second recurrence and one, a third recurrence, One patient died of widespread metastases, and another who had metastases to multiple sites was alive and disease-free after aggressive treatment of the metastat ic lesions. Conclusions: While the size of the lesion, the age and gender of the patien t, the status of the growth plate, and an aneurysmal-bone-cyst component to the tumor had no significant effect on the recurrence rate, lesions around the hip (the proximal part of the femur, the greater trochanter, and the p el,is) accounted for the majority (five) of the seven recurrent tumors and one of the two metastatic lesions.