Abstract
Objective Enchondromas are benign tumours of hyaline cartilage most frequently arising in the
bones of the hand and the optimum surgical management strategy for these is debated.
We present an audit of the surgical management of 57 enchondromas referred to our
tertiary hand surgery department over a period of 12 years (2008–2020) and describe
our surgical technique for this procedure as well as a comparison with other studies
in the literature.
Materials and Methods Retrospective audit of our practice. Data were extracted from our institutional operative
database to identify all patients undergoing surgical management of enchondromas during
the time period. The individual electronic patient records were then evaluated to
extract demographics and outcome data.
Results Our results demonstrate excellent clearance of enchondroma (74% Tordai group 1 radiological
resolution) with very low complication rates and no recurrence. Our results also emphasize
the importance of surgical management of enchondromas to allow diagnosis of rare chondrosarcoma
(3.5% in this study).
Conclusion A larger randomized controlled trial is still required to adequately determine the
differences between the surgical options available and determine the best possible
surgical approach to these cases. Level of evidence is III.
Keywords
enchondroma - chondrosarcoma - bone tumor
