Enchondroma versus Low-Grade Chondrosarcoma in Appendicular Skeleton: Clinical and Radiological Criteria

Table 1

Compared clinical, radiological and histological features of enchondroma and low grade chondrosarcoma.

	Enchondroma	Low-grade chondrosarcoma
	(i) Younger patients (casual finding in adults)	(i) Patients over 25 years old
History and physical examination	(ii) Seldom painful	(ii) Inflammatory pain
	(iii) Appendicular skeleton almost exclusively (when in phalanx, E almost 100%)	(iii) In axial skeleton, a chondral tumor is always a chondrosarcoma until the opposite is proven
	(iv) In general size <5 cm	(iv) Tends to be bigger than 5 cm
	(i) Normally intramedullary (except for enchondroma protuberans)	(i) Intramedullary
	(ii) No periosteal reaction	(ii) periosteal reaction and associated microfractures
Imaging	(iii) No endosteal scalloping (or minimal)	(iii) Frequent endosteal scalloping
	(iv) No changes during the followup	(iv) Changes over time, such as calcifications disappearance, indicating malignization
	(v) No soft tissue mass	(v) Soft tissue mass
	(i) Typical encasement pattern	(i) Invades Haversian system
	(ii) No endosteal scal loping	(ii) periosteal reaction with endosteal scalloping
Biopsy	(iii) Multinodular aspect	(iii) Ocasional necrotic and haemorraghical focii
	(iv) Surrounded by lamellar bone	(iv) Invades bone marrow
	(v) Does not invade bone marrow	(v) Generally a single mass