Summary Short-term cultures from one synovial chondroma and three cases of synovial chondromatosis, a lesion for which no previous karyotypic information exists, were cytogenetically analysed. Whereas the chondroma displayed the relatively simple karyotype 46,XY,add(12)(ql3),der(17)t(12;17)(ql3;q21), more complex changes were found in the three cases of chondromatosis: case 1, 47,XY,der(l)inv(l)(pl3q25) del (1) (q25q32), t (1; 12) (q25;q13), + 5,der (12) add (12) (pl 1) t (1; 12) (p22;q1 3); case 2, 47, XY,add (10) (q26), + 20/ 46, idem,-6/46,XY,t (2;4) (q33;q21), add (21) (pl1); and case 3, 44,XY,add(l)(p36),del(l)(pl3p22),add(6)(p25), del(7) (q22q32),del(10)(q21),add (11)