Osteochondroma in a skeleton from an 11th century Croatian cemetery.

We present a case of a well-preserved bone tu mor in a skel e ton from a Cro atian skel e tal se ries dated to the 11th cen tury AD. The tu mor is lo cated on the an te rior side of the neck of the right fe mur. The gross mor phol o gy of the tu mor – a round, lumpy, cau li flower-like ap pear ance with a fairly smooth ex ter nal sur face – is con sis tent with osteochondroma. The di ag no sis is sup ported by x-ray and CAT-scan find ings, which show thick ened tra beculae and an in ter nal struc ture of cancellous bone in ter spersed with ar eas of dense com pact bone. Com par i son with x-rays from a pa tient sur gi cally treated in 1999 for an osteochondroma with the same lo cal iza tion shows that the char ac ter is tics of the tu mor have re mained un c hanged from the 11th cen tury.