Spontaneous hemothorax caused by a chest wall chondrosarcoma.

A 48-year-old man who presented with chest pain was found to have a spontaneous hemothorax caused by a large grade II chondrosarcoma. This was diagnosed on the basis of the findings from thoracotomy. After chest tube drainage of the hemothorax, the tissue obtained by two computed tomography-guided biopsies of a residual mass did not yield findings that allowed diagnosis of the tumor. This unusual case illustrates the importance of a systematic workup whenever a spontaneous hemothorax is encountered.