A Soft Tissue Chondroma Originating from the Dura Mater of the Lumbar Spinal Canal and it Mimicked a Nerve Sheath Tumor: A Case Report with the MR Imaging

ly form in the adult type, mature cartilage (1, 2). Pathologically, chondromas are classified as enchondromas when they are located within the bone (within the medullary cavity), as periosteal chondromas when they are on the surface of the bone and as soft tissue chondromas when they are in the extra-osseous and extra-synovial soft tissue regions (2). Soft tissue chondromas are also called extraskeletal chondromas (fibrochondroma, myxochondroma and osteochondroma) or chondromas of soft parts, and these are benign chondro-osseous tumors of soft tissue that usually occur in the extra-osseous and extra-synovial regions of the fingers, hands, toes and feet (2). There are rare case reports of chondromas in the skin, upper aerodigestive tract, fallopian tube and dura mater. For the tumors located in the dura mater, all of them have been reported in intracranial locations (3, 4). We present here the MRI findings and pathologic features of the first case of a soft tissue chondroma in the lumbar spinal canal and the tumor originated from the dura mater.