Osteochondroma of the cervical spine: case report and review of the literature.

Osteochondroma of the spine is a rare condition; we report a patient who presented with a spastic tetraparesis due to such a lesion of the second cervical vertebra. Surgical removal resulted in improvement of the original symptoms, but a transient hemiparesis developed postoperatively. Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging was performed and demonstrated a region of myelomalacia at the level of surgery. Survey of the literature confirms the rarity of this lesion and the use of radiology in diagnosis is discussed.