Para-articular osteochondroma of the infrapatellar fat pad: A report of three cases

INTRODUCTION: Para-articular osteochondromas are not very common. We performed simple marginal excision for three cases. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We encountered three cases of para-articular osteochondroma of the infrapatellar fat pad. All patients were men, with an average age of 43 years. The symptoms were very similar to those of anterior knee pain, which were increasing swelling and reduction of the range of motion. After simple marginal excision was performed, the symptoms improved and no recurrences or malignant transformation occurred during the mean postoperative period of 51 months. DISCUSSION: Forty-seven cases of para-articular osteochondroma have been reported, and excision is the standard treatment. Local recurrence has been reported in only one case, and malignant transformation has never been reported. However, in some reports there was no specification of the excision method, which was simply referred to as “excision.” Thus, we used a simple marginal excision for all three of our cases. CONCLUSION: We report three cases of para-articular osteochondroma of the infrapatellar fat pad that were effectively treated using simple marginal excision.