An unusual case of talar osteochondroma causing altered gait in a 7-year-old child

Abstract

Osteochondromas are benign bone tumours that arise from divergent cartilage formation, most commonly seen in childhood. We present a case report of a 7-year-old male who presented with a solitary lateral ankle mass associated with occasional pain and altered gait pattern for a duration of 18 months after being evaluated in other hospitals, without much success. The patient was successfully treated with open surgical excision, using an anterolateral approach to. Pathologic evaluation reported a benign osteochondroma of talus, and the patient subsequently had routine healing of the postoperative incision site and return to full function without pain or disability at 6-week follow-up. This case study adds to the current understanding, incidence, occurrence, and treatment of rare osteochondromas occurring in the talus causing gait disturbance which has to be identified and treated with surgical excision which in the literature has the lowest recurrence rate of less than 2% following the treatment.