Chondrosarcoma is rarely found in the extremities but it remains the most common primary malignant bone tumor of the hand. We report an unusual case of a 46-year-old man with a huge chondrosarcoma on his left hand that has been evolving for more than 30 years. The mass has always been painless, the symptoms were only the deformation and a slight loss of motion. We did a subtotal resection since the patient refused the amputation. The investigation, which in- cluded thoracoabdominal tomography, scintigraphy and blood analysis, turned out to be negative. In the literature, CS are usually associated with a locally destructive growth but metastasis hasn’t been often described. CS seems to be an aggressive tumor locally but, unlike in other sites, it seems to rarely metastasize when in the hands.
Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a well-known and proven treatment for wound care. However, its use on bone tissue hasn't been described so far. Wounds with visible bone tissue are difficult to manage and the results are often disappointing. We describe the case of a 75-year-old man, with cutaneous necrosis and underlying exposed hardware 7 weeks after a tibial shaft fracture treated by open reduction and internal fixation. After hardware removal, and because of the impossibility to close the soft tissue, a NPWT was directly applied to the bone. The results were encouraging, and a simple skin graft was sufficient after NPWT treatment. Through this case and after a review of the literature, it seems appropriate to extend the indications of NPWT as a salvage solution for exposed bone wound. Further studies are needed to determine the limits of this therapeutic option and to compare it with the already existing treatments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.