[Plaster filling in surgical treatment of enchondroma--a justified therapeutic procedure?].

Enchondroma are the most frequent tumors of the hand. These benign tumours are characterized by slow growth, the lack of clinical symptoms and by accidental discovery. The surgical treatment of enchondroma includes resection of the tumor tissue from the bone matrix, and subsequent filling of the defect with autologous or homologous spongiosa or with sterile plaster of Paris. We showed in a period from 1982 to 1989 that there is no difference with respect to the clinical outcome between our patients receiving autologous spongiosa (n = 25) or plaster filling (n = 35). Owing to its simplicity and lack of additional surgery at the iliac crest, we prefer the method of plaster filling. Animal studies performed by our group have demonstrated that implanted plaster is transformed to spongiosa within four to ten weeks without adverse effects.