
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Maffucci syndrome
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Mafucci syndrome is presented by multiple enchondromas, which are also associated with multiple cavernous soft tissue hemangiomas. Patients are normal at birth and the syndrome manifests during childhood and puberty. Common pathological fractures can arise in metaphyses and diaphses of the long bones. Patients with this disease show no lack of intelligence.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis
The imaging findings are
- Radiographs, particularly of the hands and feet, are often pathognomonic in Maffucci syndrome.
- The radiolucent skeletal lesions are well demarcated and show expansile remodeling of the affected bone with predominant thinning of the cortex and endosteal scalloping.
- Matrix mineralization in the osseous lesions is frequent and shows the typical arc-and-ring appearance of chondroid lesions.
- Deformities of the extremities may be caused by interrupted skeletal growth during development.
- In the soft tissues, phleboliths—which are typical of cavernous hemangiomas—and soft-tissue calcifications may be seen.
Right femoral enchondroma is a patient with Maffucci syndrome. Please note the Throckmorton’s sign
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

