| Summary: | An 11-year-old boy presented with an insidious onset,
gradually progressive, painless swelling in upper back region
that grew over the past 7 years. Spinal examination revealed
a paraspinal globular mass on the left side at the level of the
D1 to D4 vertebra. The swelling was bony hard in
consistency, lobulated and fixed to underlying vertebra; there
were no similar swellings on skeletal survey. Neurological
and systemic examination was normal. Plain radiographs and
computed tomography (CT) studies showed evidence of a
lobulated, multiseptate, exophytic mass arising from the tip
of the spinous process of D2 vetebra, with chondroid matrix
calcification. Excision biopsy and resultant histopathological
examination was suggestive of osteochondroma. Extant
literature supports the origin of spinal osteochondroma from
secondary ossification centres; thus, invariably, presentation
of spinal exostosis occurs in the post-pubertal period. This
case was unique in that the probable origin derived from a
primary centre of ossification.
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