Osteochondroma is the most common bone tumor, accounting for about 20%-50% of benign bone tumors and 10%-15% of all bone tumors. It is a common tumor in childhood and adolescence, and may affect the growth and development of children, which makes many parents worry. Parents often encounter such cases in outpatient clinics. Parents often feel anxious when they find bony masses around their children’s joints by chance or when their children complain of leg pain and the masses are found on examination. When doctors tell them that it is an osteochondroma, many parents are even more overwhelmed, adding to the psychological burden of their child. Many parents’ questions boil down to, since it is a tumor, should we operate to remove it and when should we operate? People’s fear of tumors is reflected in this question. To answer these questions and avoid unnecessary panic, let’s see what are the characteristics of osteochondroma? Osteochondroma is most commonly seen in the epiphysis of long bones, especially around the knee joint and proximal humerus. The masses are found near the joint and are often present for a long time without any symptoms. The pain associated with some masses is often due to repeated injury at the site of the mass protrusion, local muscle and vascular nerve bundle compression. Osteochondroma presents as a protrusion on the bone surface covered with a cartilage cap, and the tumor grows in size due to the intrachondral osteogenesis of the hyaline cartilage cap. There is no clear pattern of inheritance for solitary osteochondroma, whereas multiple osteochondromas are inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. Approximately half of the children of parents with this predisposition can develop multiple osteochondromas. Patients with this hereditary form of osteochondroma multiforme are likely to have an increased likelihood of secondary osteochondrosarcoma, which is quite rare in childhood, after the age of more than 30 years. The diagnosis of this tumor is not difficult and can be made mostly on the basis of X-rays in addition to clinical examination, but it needs to be differentiated from skeletal variations or other abnormalities that are common in children during growth and development. Histologically, osteochondroma consists of a cartilaginous cap and a tip or broad base of bone tissue, with the cartilaginous cap becoming thicker in younger patients. Beneath the cartilage cap there are varying degrees of calcification, intrachondral osteogenesis, and bone tissue with normal cortical and medullary cavities. Osteochondromas can continue to grow until skeletal maturity, but this does not imply malignant transformation. In children, it is very rare for an osteochondroma to become malignant, and in adults, malignant transformation is uncommon. Asymptomatic osteochondromas do not require surgical removal. Surgical resection is indicated only when the tumor is causing pain, when it is pinching a blood vessel or nerve, or when it is affecting joint movement. Sometimes, adolescent patients with osteochondroma may feel unsightly and require surgical removal of the tumor, which is more unacceptable than scarring. However, there are two other problems of surgery that need our attention: one is that the surgery may injure the growth plate and affect the growth and development of the limb, and the other is that the tumor is prone to recurrence after removal. Some reports show that osteochondroma growing in the scapula, pelvis and proximal femur, especially those recurring after resection, are more prone to malignant transformation. Therefore, besides doctors pay attention to the complete removal of tumor in operation technique to prevent recurrence, the age of surgical removal of osteochondroma should be delayed as much as possible to reduce the risk of damage to the growth plate.