Soft tissue chondroma mimicking "dumbbell" neurogenic tumour: a rare cause of lumbar radiculopathy.

Soft tissue chondromas are rare, benign extra-skeletal tumours of cartilaginous origin, which may rarely occur within the spinal canal. We report a patient who presented with left lumbar radiculopathy, and a peripherally-enhancing dumbbell shaped soft tissue mass involving both the intraspinal and extraspinal compartments on MRI. This was misdiagnosed as a neurogenic tumour and the patient underwent surgical removal. Histological examination revealed cartilaginous tissue. Although rare, soft tissue chondromas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of spinal dumbbell shaped tumours, especially if MRI shows peripheral contrast enhancement.