Lumbar spinal chondroma presenting with acute sciatica

Abstract

A 47-year-old woman visited with lumbago and severe left leg pain that had been presented for 1 week. The patient complained of severe radiating pain on left L3 sensory dermatome area and reported aggravation of leg pain at 20 degrees of hip flexion by straight leg raising test (SLRT). However, there was no motor weakness on neurological examination. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated contrast enhancing spinal extradural mass at L2-3 level that was iso-signal intensity (SI) on T1-weighted images (WI), hypo-SI on T2WI. She was not able to walk and sleep due to incapacitating pain. Thus, surgical removal was performed via left partial laminectomy. Postoperatively, the radiating pain was relieved completely. Histopathologic examination revealed that the tumor consisted of chondroma, which had mature hyaline cartilage with nests of benign-appearing cells and calcium deposits in lacunae.

Keywords: Chondroma; Lumbar spine; Sciatica.

Fig. 1

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance images show a peripheral rim enhancement (white arrow).

Fig. 2

The Intraoperative findings of lumbar spine chondroma. The yellow-reddish colored mass was seen in the posterior spinal canal.

Fig. 3

Histopathologic examination showed mature hyaline cartilage with nests of benign-appearing cells and calcium deposits in lacunae (hematoxylin-eosin stain, original magnification ×200).