Turkish Neurosurgery 6: 88 - 92, 1996 Durmaz: Osteob/astoma of tlze Cervica/ Spiiie Osteo blastoma Histopathological Of and The Cervical Radiological Spine. Correlation Servikal Omurga Osteoblastomu. Bulgu Radyolojik Iliskisi ve Histopatolojik RAMAZAN DURMAZ, HAKAN BOZOGLU, SARE KABUKÇUOGLU, ERKAN VARDARELI, ESREF TEL Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine, Oepartments of Neurosurgery (RO,HB,ED, Pathology (SK), and Nuclear Medicine (EV),Eskisehir, Turkey Abstract: This is the case report of an eight-year old boy with a benign osteoblastoma of the C3 vertebra. The clinical, radiologicaL, gross and histopathological findings concerning the tumor are sufficiently characteristic and exclusive to justify the diagnosis of "osteoblastoma". Key Words: Osteoblastoma, scintigraphy, spine, surgery. INTRODUCTION Osteoblastoma is arare, vaseular, and progressively expansive, benign tumor of the bone, and has a 34.41 % predileetion for the spine (7,8,15). Sinee the lesion is histologieally indistinguishable from osteoid osteoma, a differential diagnosis was ma de on the basis of natural history, lesion size and radiological images (3,7,8,15,16). The majority of the cases is under the age of 30, with a peak in the second deeade of life (8,15). In this report, it is aimed to draw attention to the applieation of vertebral angiography in primary eervieal spine neoplasni.s, for aseertaining the existenee or absenee of any vaseular eomplieations CASE REPORT An eight-year old ehild with a history of ne ek pain over a six month period was admitted to the Neurosurgieal Department of Medical Faeu1ty of Osmangazi University in Deeember 1994. He was 88 Özet: Servikal üçüncü omurgada benigin osteoblastomu olan sekiz yasinda bir erkek hasta sunulmaktadir. Bu tümörün klinik, radyolojik, makroskopik ve mikroskopik patolojik bulgulari 'osteoblastoma' tanisini kesinlikle koyduracak kadar kendine özgüdür. Anahtar sözcükler: Cerrahi, omurga, osteoblastoma, sintigrafi suffering insidious pa in during the day whieh intensified at least twiee during the night. Salieylates provided some relief from the pain. The neurologieal examination show ed no abnormality; however, a eervieal postero-anterior plain radiogram revealed a well- cireumseribed ovallesion on the pedides of the C2, C3, and C4 vertebrae on the right (Figure 1). Further, although the tumor itself was not visible in the other projeetions, a narrowing second intervertebral foramen appeared on the right oblique film, and the lateral radiogram revealed loss of eervieal eurvature. A whole-body seintigram performed three hours af ter an intravenous injection of 10 mCi Te-99 m methylene diphosphonate (MDP) revealed a well-demareated, hyperaetive round lesion on the third eervical vertebral body (Figure 2). A eomputerized tomography (CT) sean of the eervieal spine showed a patehy, ossified nidus, surounded by a bone shell, situated on all the