Pulmonary chondroma: A clinicopathological study of 29 cases and a review of the literature

The present retrospective study was designed to review the clinicopathological features and outcome of surgical treatment of pulmonary chondroma, and to accumulate data for the clinical diagnosis and therapy. The clinicopathological data from 29 patients, aged between 38- and 78-years-old, with pulmonary chondroma who underwent surgical operation between July 2003 and June 2015 were reviewed. Of these patients, 18 exhibited no clinical symptoms, 7 were characterized by coughing, hemoptysis, shortness of breath and other symptoms and only 3 patients exhibited chest pain as the predominant symptom. The average size of the neoplasms was 3.6 cm. All patients were pathologically diagnosed. Operative time was 126±22 min, the mean intraoperative blood loss was 82±23 ml and the drainage duration was 3.1±1.8 days. A total of 6 postoperative complications were noted. The patients were followed-up for 2–135 months. A total of 23 patients were alive without recurrence, 4 patients succumbed to mortality, 2 patients were lost at follow-up. Pulmonary chondroma is a rare benign tumor of the lung. The clinical symptoms were concealed and often misdiagnosed as a tuberculosis tumor, hamartoma, peripheral lung cancer or a single metastatic tumor. Complete resection was the best treatment providing patients with a good prognosis. After definite diagnosis, it is necessary to exclude Carney's triad.