Background:

bone tumors are common lesions, there are specific features related to each histological type, but unusual and atypical presentations do occur.

Objetive:

to show the case of a patient with an enchondroma in the proximal right tibial plateau.

Case report:

a 74 year old white woman, who had had previous personal history of hypertension and asthma is taken to the Orthopaedic and Traumatology outpatient department complaining of right knee pain which gets worse with physical activity associated to limited range of motion and articular crepitus. CT scan showed an osteoblastic lesion in the proximal upper right tibial plateau without cortical breaking. On the other hand, multiple subchondral degenerative cysts were found in the knee joint as well as osteophytes, sclerosis and joint space narrowing. Taken into account the entire previous patient' features, surgery was performed and consist of tumor resection with bone cement filled. The specimen was send to the pathology department showing enchondroma.

Conclusions:

enchondroma is a benign cartilaginous bone tumor unfrequently found over 40 years of age, the main differential diagnosis is low grade chondrosarcoma. Because of the infrequent presentation of this case in regards to age, surgery was warranted to confirm diagnosis.

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