Hand Tumors: An Individual Surgeon's Retrospective Review.

Background: Tumors of the hand are encountered frequently and represent a variety of pathologic diagnoses, both benign and malignant. Even within a single pathologic type, presentation can vary. This study reviews hand tumors encountered by an individual surgeon and described presenting features to better aid in clinical decision making.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients presenting with a hand tumor between January 2005 and December 2017 from an individual surgeon's perspective was performed. Pertinent data were extracted by researchers and statistical analysis was completed with GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software, Inc).

Results: A total of 101 patients aged 14 months to 87 years (mean age, 40.52 years) were included. Within this patient group, soft tissue tumors accounted for 97%, malignant neoplasm 2%, and bone tumors 1%. Ganglion cysts were most common (54.5%) followed by hemangiomas (9.9%), giant cell tumors (6.9%), granulomas (5.9%), and fibromas (5%). A total of 54.5% of patients reported pain and 43.5% reported decreased range of motion (ROM).

Conclusions: In this patient cohort, ganglion cyst was the most common tumor type and presented with pain and deficits in ROM. This is contrary to the asymptomatic presentation of such cases in the literature. Other common tumors were hemangiomas, giant cell tumors, granulomas, and fibromas. Malignant tumors were rare, as expected, and both cases presented without pain or tenderness.