Syringomyelia and vertebral osteochondromas in patients with multiple hereditary exostosis

Involvement of osteochondromas in the spinal canal occurs in patients with multiple hereditary exostosis, but the exact prevalence is unknown. A recent study found an incidence of 68%, with 27% of these lesions encroaching into the spinal canal. We studied MRI findings of 27 patients with multiple hereditary exostosis and found only six (23.1%) patients with osteochondromas arising from the spinal column and three (11.5%) patients with encroachment into the spinal canal. We also found three (11.5%) patients with an incidental syringomyelia. Only five of the nine (55.6%) patients with positive findings on MRI had symptoms prompting the MRI and two patients had significant symptoms that required surgical excision. Although the incidence of spinal osteochondroma in our population is lower than that of previous studies, we found a relatively high incidence of syringomyelia in these patients, which has not been previously reported.