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Portions of a chondroma, which have undergone calcification or ossification, throw a dark shadow with the X-rays; unaltered cartilage and myxomatous tissue appear as clear areas. [Illustration: FIG.
The tumour is firm and elastic in consistence, but certain portions may be densely hard from calcification or ossification, while other portions may be soft and fluctuating as a result of myxomatous degeneration and liquefaction. These tumours grow slowly and painlessly, and may surround nerves and arteries without injuring them. They may cause a deep hollow in the bone from which they originate.
A myxomatous swelling attacked the phalanges and effected a complete absorption of the terminal phalanx. It did not advance as far as gangrene or exfoliation of bone. At the time of report the whole ten fingers were involved; the bones seemed to be thickened, the soft parts being indurated or sclerosed. In the right index finger a completely sclerosed ring passed around the middle phalanx.
The pure myxoma is extremely rare, and clinically resembles the lipoma. Myxomatous tissue is, however, frequently found in other connective-tissue tumours as a result of degeneration, for example, in cartilaginous tumours and in sarcomas. Myxomatous tissue is also a prominent constituent of the "innocent parotid tumour."
They usually project from the surface of the bone, and may attain an enormous size; sometimes they grow in the interior of a bone, the so-called enchondroma. The hyaline cartilage composing the tumour frequently undergoes myxomatous degeneration, resulting in the formation of a glairy, semi-fluid jelly, and if this change takes place throughout the tumour it comes to resemble a cyst.
The circumscribed or solitary tumour grows from the sheath of a nerve which is otherwise healthy, and it may be innocent or malignant. The innocent form is usually fibrous or myxomatous, and is definitely encapsulated. It may become cystic as a result of hæmorrhage or of myxomatous degeneration.
When it contains myxomatous tissue it is called a myxo-adenoma, and when the gland spaces of the tumour become distended with accumulated secretion, a cystic adenoma, the best examples of which are met with in the mamma and ovary.
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