Periosteal chondroma developing in a rib at the side of a chest wall wound from a previous thoracotomy: report of a case.

We describe herein the case of a 45-year-old man who developed a periosteal chondroma in a rib at the site of a thoracotomy that had been performed 24 years previously. To our knowledge, this is only the third case of a periosteal chondroma in a rib to be documented in the world literature. Some authors have suggested that trauma, including that of surgery, may induce chondroma formation and this association could have been an important contributing factor in the induction of the tumor in this patient.