Osteochondroma Presenting as a Calcified Mass in the Sellar Region and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Osteochondroma (OC) is the most common benign bone neoplasm. It infrequently occurs in the cranial cavity as a calcified lesion and very rarely presents in the sellar region. The present study summarizes the knowledge about OCs of the sellar region. We searched the literature search for the clinical appearance of OCs and other calcified pathologies occurring in the sellar region. A total of 21 English-language articles published from 1961 to 2015 documented cases of calcified lesions in the sellar region including cerebral aneurysm, chondroid chordoma, chondroma, craniopharyngioma, OC, odontome, osteoma, pituitary adenoma, pituitary stone, Rathke cleft cyst, retinoblastoma, schwannoma, and xanthogranuloma. Among them, six were OC cases: three in the parasellar region and three in the sellar-suprasellar region. Patients with sellar-suprasellar OCs presented with visual loss and hypopituitarism; patients with parasellar OCs did not show these symptoms. OCs appeared as irregular and multilobulated calcifications on X-ray and computed tomography. On magnetic resonance imaging, OCs showed variable intensity on T1-weighted sequences and consistently heterogenous intensity on T2. Four patients underwent transcranial tumor resection, and the transsphenoidal route was selected for one. Five of the six resulted in a partial resection or internal decompression with a satisfactory outcome. Calcified tumors occurring in the sellar region may be OCs, especially if they appear as irregular multilobulated calcification.