Traumatic Vertebral Fracture with Coexisting Enchondroma: a Case-Report and Review of the Literature

Enchondroma of the vertebral spine is a rare clinical entity. For symptomatic enchondroma, surgical resection is the treatment of choice. Here we present the atypical case of a patient with non-symptomatic spinal enchondroma (D9), discovered because of a dorsal trauma that led to a D9 fracture. The pre-operative diagnostic workup gave a suspicion of a co-existing neoplastic lesion, leading to the consideration of a more likely pathologic fracture than a traumatic lesion, with no segmental instability. Therefore, kyphoplasty with Vertebral Body Stenting System and intraoperative biopsy were performed, with evidence of the unusual pathologic lesion. The postoperative evolution showed a complete recovery. After multidisciplinary oncologic discussion, we decided to perform a strict follow-up with MRI at 3 and 12 months, instead of performing a vertebrectomy. At 1-year follow-up, the patient presented no clinical symptoms, and no evidence of lesion recurrence was assessed at the imaging. Though not the recommended treatment choice, kyphoplasty seems to be a potential treatment option for a traumatic fracture superposing on non-previously detected and asymptomatic enchondroma