Chondrosarcoma of the nasal septum: A case report

Chondrosarcoma make up only 10-20% of malignant primary bone tumors, with 5-10% located in the head and neck (Downey TJ, Clark SK, Moore DW. Chondrosarcoma of the nasal septum. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2001;125:98-100), and nasal septal chondrosarcoma is extremely rare. Surgical excision is the only curative treatment and radiation and chemotherapy have a limited role for palliation. We used a navigation system in endoscopic surgery without complications for a case of chondrosarcoma of the nasal septum by means of a midfacial degloving approach at primary operation and an external incision approach at salvage operation for local recurrence. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of such a system for this surgical approach along with a salvage operation. We discuss the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of this case as well as present a review of the literature.