Telangiectatic osteosarcoma is a rare variant of osteosarcoma
and can be easily misdiagnosed as aneurysmal bone cyst. We
report an atypical case of iliac telangiectatic osteosarcoma in
a young healthy female, who presents with painful slow
growing expansile lytic septate lesion in the left hemipelvis,
which is initially treated as aneurysmal bone cyst. The
diagnosis of aneurysmal bone cyst is made after
histopathological examination of core needle biopsy. Her
condition became unstable and massive bleeding is noted at
the lesion site after sclerosant injection. She undergoes
emergency hemipelvectomy and eventually the biopsy turns
up to be telangiectatic osteosarcoma. Our case highlights that
core needle biopsy is not useful in making diagnosis for iliac
telangiectatic carcinoma. Hence, an open biopsy should be
carried out in our case.
This case also emphasises on careful evaluation for
malignancy which is mandatory because bleeding from
pelvis after an unsuitable treatment can be grave, to the
extent that major amputation hemipelvectomy is an option.
Even though telangiectatic osteosarcoma has the same
prognosis and treatment with conventional osteosarcoma, the
outcome of delayed treatment for telangiectatic
osteosarcoma is not good due to the dilemma in establishing
an early correct diagnosis.