2012 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 181-185
Synovial chondromatosis is a benign disorder characterized by developmental nodules of cartilage within the synovial connective tissue of the articular joint. It is often reported in the larger joints of the body including the knee, hip, elbow, and ankle. We report a case of recurrent synovial osteochondromatosis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The patient was a 63-year-old woman, complaining of swelling and pain of the left TMJ. Ten years earlier, she had been diagnosed as synovial chondromatosis of the left TMJ, and initially treated with arthroscopic surgery by oral and maxillofacial surgery at another hospital. Although years passed without symptoms after surgery, swelling and pain of the left TMJ appeared from April 2010. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed expansion of the TMJ cavity; this area showed low signal intensity on T1-weighted images and high signal intensity on T2-weighted images. As the clinical diagnosis was recurrent synovial chondromatosis, we performed removal of the metaplasia and discectomy by open surgery under general anesthesia. Histopathologically, the diagnosis was synovial osteochondromatosis. The postoperative course was uneventful, and there was no evidence of recurrence or any symptoms 23 months after the operation.
